No canine hot pot just yet

Well my first full day in Korea has been full of ups and downs. I've clashed with the underground system twice, once getting completely stuck on the wrong side of the barriers without and change to get out, although I was released eventually and I think I know how the darn system works for future reference.

I spent most of the day on the beach writing some notes for articles. The weather was somewhat mixed, and I ended up getting rained on a little when heading back from the beach but it didn't matter much. Although the BBC forecast for here says it's really humid it doesn't feel too bad at all, perhaps as the temperature's pretty reasonable from what I can tell.

It's possible to eat out really quite cheaply here, although as few places seem to employ the photographic menu system favoured in Japan there's a significant chance of starving to death if you don't understand what's written. It's yet to be seen which of the two paths I end up on!

I've noticed more attention here by the locals than in Japan. I suspect Korea receives less foreign tourists and a place like Busan less still. I've had a few people come up and talk to me, something which I'm automatically rather suspicious about as I generally suspect they're after my brass or they want to redeem my soul from eternal damnation or similiar. I came across the latter group the odd time in Japan. However on on occasion an old guy showed me how to use the underground ticket machine. As it happened it was perfectly straight forward and I had it sussed, although if I'd been travelling to a different 'sector' as I was today his help might have saved me all the agro I had. In any case I'm still not too sure how open to be to people approaching on the street. One guy was chatting to another guy on the street last night and said "hello my friend" upon seeing me. I ignored him and walked on. He might have been trying to be friendly, who knows, but when he speaks like that and sounds like some iffy middle eastern carpet salesman what am I expected to thing?

Haven't really discovered more about the Korean people yet. Mobile phones from home don't work here. Meeting a friend later. Out of time!

Just arrived in Korea

Although it's been a thoroughly good experience all things must come to an end and I've been feeling ready to move on from Japan to pastures new and so it is that I'm writing this from an internet cafe in Korea, but three hours by hydrofoil from Japan.

In the end I spent a few days in Nagasaki doing some low scale sightseeing, and after a tip I managed to get some proper R&R on an island in Nagasaki bay. For less than five pounds I got a return ferry ticket which included a ticket to the onsen (hot springs) resort on the island. Now I've not been terribly keen on this hot springs idea but it is regarded as one of those things that you have to do while in Japan, and so I did. As with the other guys in particularly I've spoken to who have spoken to who have been to an onsen, my opinion was a bit 'meh' in that it wasn't anything terribly special at all. Certainly for me it was all a bit too on the warm side to be enjoyed for any period. At least I was more or less the only person there, but taking off your glasses makes everything a blur, avoiding those situations that are otherwise uncomfortable to a prudish Brit. The highlight of the island was a modest manmade beach. Although the weather was terrible I managed to grab a good couple of hours of chilling on the beach between showesrs and although the weather was entirely overcast I still managed to miraculously catch the sun and go slightly red! Of course I didn't use any suncream because it was cloudy and raining, but it looks as if I'll really have to look out when I head towards the tropical lands where the sun can be ferocious.

After Nagasaki I had to fork out for the train back to Fukuoka as my rail pass had expired. A backpacker in the Nagasaki hostel warned me about this route as he was apparantly quite sick while on this train. Certainly it does upset the stomach a bit with lots of side-to-side moving in addition to the tilting that the train does. Fortunately I made it through with my breakfast intact though. I saw a few sights in Fukuoka although it's not a city that rates terribly highly on tourists' itineraries. To have a peek inside the Fukuoka Dome, Japan's largest, I bought a ticket for the flea market that was going on. I have to say that while the dome was reasonably impressive, Japanese flea markets (imagine a car boot sale without the cars) was rubbish. Lots of clothes from what looked like more like business sellers rather than the random and ecclectic selection of tat you'd expect at home. I was hoping that seeing what people were selling might provide something of an insight into the average Japanese family, but alas not.

Today was the day to leave all those Japanese quirks behind and see how it all compared in Korea. This morning was a bit of a rush trying to post a few things home, including my copy of the Rough Guide to Japan, the weight of which I'm happy to cast off. I have had to buy a Korea travel guide, but it's quite slim in comparison to the hefty tome that Japan necessitates. After the posting I had a dash between the post office and banks trying to get some foreign currency. I managed to get sorted with some Korean Won in the end but by which time I was cutting it short for my boat, given that I still had to pack and check out. Fortunately it came together and I got to the ferry terminal in reasonable time and away I went. Curiously there's a choice of a ferry or a hydrofoil for the oft plied route between Fukuoka and Busan. The ferry however takes 14 hours whereas the hydrofoil takes but three and is only slightly more expensive. Having felt that I've not been lacking on lengthy journeys on this trip so far I decided to take more swift mode of transport and by early afternoon I found myself in Korea's 2nd largest city and the world's fourth busiest port.

And so onto some first impressions of Korea. Although I suspect where I'm staying isn't the nicest area of town by a long way, is that it looks on the face of it rather like Japan with a somewhat reduced level of affluence in that there's less shine and a scruffier finish to the streets here. On the plus side though things do seem cheaper and the shops I've passed seem a good deal more eclectic and specialist than those in Japan, having already spied an antiques shop and music instrument shop, where in Japan the shopping seems rather much of a muchness. The taxi from the port to where I'm staying cost a little over 1 pound, food seems cheap and plentiful and internet access is around half the price of Japan too. Japanese friends told me that they can tell the difference between Japanese and Koreans just by looking at them, and indeed there is a difference although it's not something I can easily describe or put my finger on. One thing that's certainly been absent so far is a Korean equivalent of the speaky female voice that follows you more or less everywhere in Japan. Buses, vending machines, escalators all employ this same presumably diminutive lady for the nation's digitised customer service messages, but here so far there's been a resounding and it has to be said rather welcome silence, although we'll see if this is still the case once I've tried out the public transport here.

I'm not planning a great deal of sightseeing in Busan just yet. I'm planning to meet a school friend in a couple of days for one thing and there are several beaches nearby which seem that much more tempting at the moment!

Japan observations

It's high time I did a round-up of the many facets of Japanese daily life that make this country so unique.

Bowing

It goes without saying of course, but the culture of bowing goes even further than you'd expect. It's not just limited to the interactions we'd use hand-shakes for, it goes a great deal further. Take train travel for instance; when the conductor or the refreshments lady passes through the carriage, even if they're just en-route to another place on the train, at the end of the carriage they will turn around to face the passengers and bow in the doorway, sometimes doing a full bow. It must take them a while to get through a 16 car Shinkansen doing this but that's how it works! Better still, when a train departs or arrive the platform staff will bow towards it, and remain bowing until the last carriage has passed by or the train has come to a halt. Even though I've seen it a few times now it doesn't cease to entertain me and make my journey on the Japanese Rail system feel that little bit more special.

School children

School uniform is big in Japan but unlike at home it's common to see droves of children in uniform on Saturday and Sunday. I'm told that during the school week it's normal for them to remain in uniform while at weekends they can have up to 12 hours of cramming classes. Furthermore at any point from lunchtime onwards school children seem to be everywhere apart from at school. Commonly they seem to hang around shopping areas but more oddly tourist attractions too. Maybe they get good discounts.

Cute

The Japanese love cute things. Grown women can have Hello Kitty or other collections of characters at home, while cartoon-style characters are used to promote everything. There's a certainly a strong cute-feminine theme running through Japan culture too which sees middle-school girls in sailor-style school uniforms, tour reps in the cutest of uniforms with straw hats and it extends a lot further than that too, pervading Japanese culture generally. In the internet cafe from which I type this for instance there are stuffed toys on top of each PC, while Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty are on the bookcase. This of course contains dozens of manga comics, which contains its own brand of Japanese cuteness. Characters are used to represent everything. Here in Nagasaki there's a city character and another character who as far as I can tell appears to be a sponge cake which seems to be a local food speciality of sorts. Certain shops specialise in the sale of goods featuring characters, as well as chains selling goods for particular character brands such as Snoopy or Pokemon. Cute is the default setting for most things in Japan, and it seems a far cry from the gritty appearance that Britain tries to make out for itself.

Everything's talking at me

In Japan expect normally inanimate objects to chatter at you. Escalators welcome you on and tell you to watch out as you dismount, while a good many devices are fitted with proximity detectors so they'll start speaking when you go up to them. Some vending machines will greet you if you approach them to peruse the refreshments on offer and will of course thank you for using them at the end. My personal favourite is the Post Office ATM, not least as it's in English. It talks you step-by-step through the process of taking money out and when it presents you with everything (it gives you your card, a receipt and your cash simultaneously) it instructs you to "please take them. Please take care of things left behind". On one occasion the money hadn't fallen correctly into place so I took one note and tried to get the others when the ATM warned me "there are things left behind, please take them". I've had other ATMs show a picture of a cartoon man and woman bowing at me apologetically as their ATM wasn't able to accept my foreign cash card. I had thought that the Japanese had drawn the line at making toilets speak but even this - on one occasion at a train station in northern Honshu it started chatting to me as I entered the cubicle. Happily this isn't a common occurance!

Down to business

If there's one thing there's a lot of in Japan (aside from talking escalators and vending machines) it's businessmen. Their presence dominates any city of size in Japan. Now I've walked through the city of London on a weekday and yes there are plenty of businessmen there, but here it's on a different scale, it's as if an entire section of society are businessmen who did seemingly little else than shuttle between business meetings around the country. For instance, domestic flights in Japan are on a completely different scale to what I'm used to in the UK. Whereas at home even a flight from London might be a sporty Embraer or a 737 at biggest, here for Tokyo flights it's a huge 747, and this size is necessitated as each and every flight is stuffed full with businessmen. Likewise the bullet trains. They run every 20 minutes or so, are generally comprised of 16 carriages and are yet regularly well stocked with the same businessmen. It's odd in the hi-tech age in which Japan pioneers that so many people still need to physically scoot around to do business, but I'm guessing doing business face-to-face remains highly valued here.

Lilliput

The main gripe I have about Japan is the scale of things here. It's by no means a major issue, but on visiting any accommodation or museum there are the standard issue indoor slippers provided and these are universally far too small for my feet. Now before you take me for a whinging Brit, complaining at anything that differs from that of the Sceptred Isle, let me just clarify that we're not talking slightly nipping at the sides here, we're talking the back quarter of my foot hanging off the back of the slipper. And it's the same with all slippers in glorious uniformity. Fortunately it's not just me that suffers from this. In Himeji castle I, along with the other Gaijin visiting, donned the slippers for the first indoor area of the castle you stroll around. Fortunately stairs weren't generally present and I managed to shuffle my way around albeit in considerable discomfort. Come the second main building where you have to take your shoes off and I noticed all the other Gaijin are either barefoot or in socks, having as with myself learnt our lesson in the inadequacies of Japanese slipper dimensions.

Fashion

Unlike in Russia where the women spend almost their entire incomes on appearance while the men look like they're dressed in a sack, in Japan it's a little more akin to home with both sexes partaking in the trends of the day, although the women still steal the show. I'd read about the different teen-fashions of Japan, several of which I've uploaded photos of from my time in Tokyo but the one I hadn't seen until recently was where the youngsters dress up in full-length cartoon character outfits. In Kagoshima I finally got my wish, and what an odd sight it is to behold. Now these aren't cool world-saving anime heroes but rather cute characters more akin to Winnie the Pooh. Seeing this couple, hand in hand, dressed in these suits walking through the lantern festival was quite an odd sight. However the Japanese youth, or at least a minority of it, seem to have few quarms in dressing up in the most outrageous costumes and walking through some of the busiest streets of Tokyo. Aside from the extremes the Japanese tend to dress in a fairly conservative manner certainly when you compare the locals with the visiting gaijin. Many of the men seem to stay suited up more or less permanently from what I can see. T-shirts are popular, and spotting "Engrish" t-shirts sporting some truly bizarre slogan on them are particularly prized by visiting English speakers.

Sound advice

Wherever you are in Japan if there's any chance of a hazard in your proximity then you're likely to be informed about it. Signs are everywhere and in quite considerable numbers warning you of anything or otherwise advising you about something what you shouldn't be doing. Escalators are particularly well covered by warnings and can often have verbal announcements at both ends presumably advising caution. Trains all have signs warning of getting fingers trapped in doors, advising not to run for trains and offering other illustrations which I've yet to work out the meaning of. In some subways I've even seen a sign advising not to grope women or otherwise what the lady should do if a creeping hand comes her way. That's a definite "only in Japan" moment. On the streets vinyl stickers can often be seen appended to the pavement and most common advise against smoking on the streets (although it seems perfectly acceptable to smoke in most places indoors including where others are eating around you.) Japan also seems to favour having several warnings where in most other countries one would quite suffice. For example if a large vehicle is reversing there's the usual warning beeps but here they're also accommpanied by a man either showing with similar regularity to the beeps or otherwise blowing a whistle. Trains, trams and the like can incorporate any number of warnings from claxons, spoken warnings, music that stops when the doors close, staff shouting through loudhailers on platforms, the lot, and the more the merrier it seems. In fact on the trams where I am in Nagasaki at the moment the automatic announcements rather than just give the name of the next station seem to ramble on more or less constantly. Aside for thanking people for pressing the "next stop please" button which is fairly normal the voice natters on about much else too, although I'm not at all sure what exactly. I can't see what is really so important though, as the tram system is relatively straightforward, not least for the Japanese in whose language the message is in anyway. Just to add to the melee of sound the driver may decide to give his own running commentary, warning each time the tram is about to set off or arrive somewhere, on top of the automated voice, alarms and the rest. I often get the feeling that peace and quiet, in public spaces at least, doesn't hold the same value as it does at home, although in some instances such on trains where passengers are asked to keep their mobiles in silent, the experience can if anything be a more peaceful one than that at home.

Farewell rail pass, old friend!

Since starting to use my 3-week Japan Rail Pass it's been a really hectic time covering as much ground as possible while fitting in as many sights from throughout Japan as possible. Today, in Nagasaki in the south of Japan it came to an end. My Japan rail pass expires at midnight and so it'll be no more Shinkansen bullet trains for me! That's just fine though as I've covered a load of ground and undoubtedly got great value out of the pass. Even though it cost neck end of 300 quid the Shinkansen is pricier still and I reckon to take the journeys I've taken without the pass would have cost a small fortune or otherwise required a generous expenses account, which is what I suspect most of the other passengers on the Shinkansen, the throngs of Japanese businessmen, will be using to fund their way.

As planned I made a stop over in Okayama taking a morning to visit the city's famous gardens and glimpsing its castle before taking a local train to the inland sea and a fine 45 minute boat trip out to the amazing series of bridges stretching from Honshu over to Shikoku, providing an essential road and rail link. Although I didn't have time to visit Shikoku I could at least attempt to glimpse it in the distance at the far end of the bridge, lying somewhere in the haze. A quick visit to the intriguingly designed local bridge museum then it was back to Okayama and onwards on the beloved Shinkansen to Hiroshima.

There was no rest for the wicked though, as I spent the next morning visiting the bomb memorial sites and peace museum (the latter proving interesting and towards the end rather harrowing) and then headed onwards to Fukuoka at the end of the Shinkansen line for a festival taking place in the early hours of the morning of the 15th. The festival involved a 5km race from a city centre shrine through the streets of Fukuoka. This was no ordinary race though as it involved racing six enormous festival floats accompanied by crowds of supporting runners from the same team. Along the way they're dowsed with water (as are any spectators getting in the way). The race begins at 4.59 in the morning, following a one-minute sing-song, so after an evening stroll around the area where the race would be taking place I grabbed a few hours kip before getting up at 3am and heading down towards the shrine for the start and then onto the streets for the quite comical sight of these huge floats hurtling down the streets. Although I'd not had time to get online until recently I have now uploaded photos of the race so have a look at the photo website for snaps of some of the action.

Later that day after trying to grab a few hours more of sleep I met Miyuki, a resident of Fukuoka who I met at the hostel in Tokyo and who was kind enough to give me a guided tour of her city after meeting at the airport as she'd just flown in from Tokyo (in case you were wondering why there are photos from Fukuoka airport!). As with many of the cities I'd visited recently Fukuoka boasts an active port along with fine water front walks and views out into the harbour area. The local speciality is ramen which we tried out at one of the riverside stalls. A fine end to the day.

Time was running out with only two days left on my pass, so early the next morning I took the train down to the very south of Kyushu island to the city of Nagoshima. It was something of a spontaneous decision to come here, but after reading there was a volcano you can take a tour around it seemed like the winning option for a day-trip. It proved to be a good choice, it was just a pity I couldn't have spent more time enjoying the pleasant location as I had to return to the north of Kyushu the following day to avoid a costly or lengthy journey back to Fukuoka after my pass had expired. From Nagoshima regular ferries make the short hop across to the island of Sakurajima with its volcano looming overhead. I say it's an island, but following an eruption during the first half of the twentieth century the volume debris spewed out attached the island to a nearby peninsula turning the island into a headland of sorts. I took a coach tour around the rather brooding volcano. The mountain last showed its discontent in 1990 so remains very much active although was putting on a well-behaved face on the day of my visit. The remnants of previous eruptions really do make the trip worthwhile though with extensive lava fields and some nasty looking green volcanic pools. Nevertheless the island is very much inhabited and offers a couple of hotels with hot springs, as the Japanese really go in for the onsen thing.

Aside from the volcano I had little time to explore Kagoshima aside from seeing part of a lantern festival in the evening. This morning it was back to the station and on the Shinkansen back up Kyushu, this time going to Nagasaki. Feeling well and truly shattered from the recent itinerary I'll likely spend a few days here and put some time into planning my next move before returning to Fukuoka and possibly departing for Korea. Having spent much of the evening uploading photos I haven't yet explored the sights of Nagasaki, but I'm hoping I can find a few quiet and scenic corners to spend a while relaxing. It's time to draw a close to the wall-to-wall sightseeing at least for a short while.

Until the next update please visit the photo website for dozens of freshly uploaded photos from the past week or two!

Nagoshima - Sakurajima volcano

Sakurajima volcano
Originally uploaded by eurobahn.

Every bit the volcano you'd expect. It's part of what visiting Japan is all about!

My last Shinkansen ride!

Kyushu Shinkansen pulls into Kagoshima-chuo station as waiting passengers look on
Originally uploaded by eurobahn.

See loads of bullet trains on the photo website. Gotta love those curves! This was the last Shinkansen I took before my rail pass ran out. Unfortunately they're too expensive to take otherwise, even by the standards of British trains!

Fukuoka festival race

Fukuoka festival race - we're off
Originally uploaded by eurobahn.

Racing giant floats weighing a ton through the streets of Fukuoka is even crazier than it looks - loads more photos on the photo site

Hiroshima

Elderly Hiroshima residents visit peace memorial with A-bomb dome behind
Originally uploaded by eurobahn.

Elderly residents of Hiroshima visit the peace memorial with the A-bomb dome in the background

Seto Ohashi bridge

Seto Ohashi bridge
Originally uploaded by eurobahn.

The immense series of bridges and viaducts that cross the Japanese Inland Sea. Visit the photo website for more images

Okayama

Okayama - garden
Originally uploaded by eurobahn.

The tranquility of a traditional Japanese garden

Great Buddha of Nara

Nara Great Buddha
Originally uploaded by eurobahn.

However big it might look in the photo it's much bigger in reality!

Recent Japan highlights: Himeji castle

Himeji castle
Originally uploaded by eurobahn.

Japan's largest and most impressive remaining castle

North to South

(Apologies for the delay in posting this blog. With much sightseeing underway it's been a struggle to get uptodate.)

Happily it transpired that many a gaijin do make it as far north as Hokkaido. Although few were in evidence in Hakodate (to the extent I became quite well known at the city's tourist information office), in the excellent backpackers hostel where I spent a couple of nights in Sapporo there were guests from across the globe.

As with so many destinations a few high profile attract the bulk of the tourists while plenty of other perfectly interesting stop offs are never seen. As the days of my railpass go by the speed of my sightseeing increases and there's a growing reliance on the guidebook to offer suggestions as to the 'must see' points to include on the itinerary as with plenty of others doing the same inevitably you end up in a few tourist haunts, worthwhile visits no doubt, but seen only with a milling throng accompanying you at each turn.

This said the most recommended sight in my guidebook, the Hokkaido historical village, was pleasantly sparse in its visitors. I rode a horse-drawn tram down the main street of this turn of the century town with just a few others while in some of the farther flung corners of the village I was able to amble through farmhouses and peasant mountain residences in complete solitude, helping somewhat to recreate the atmosphere of the time.

From Sapporo I decided to take the sleeper train back to Tokyo to make the best use of my time. Although not cheap, being around 60 quid even with my railpass, it did provide a sound night's kip and a decent way of passing 1300 km by with relative ease and comfort. On arrival in Tokyo I had something of a homecoming in the hostel where'd I'd spent a good deal of time some 10 days previous. Aside from the staff there were various faces who were at the hostel the last time and who I hadn't expected to see again, one person from the Sapporo hostel who I'd recommended the hostel to and others. Best of all my visit coincided with the return trip to the hostel by a Japanese friend who I'd got to know when last there, and so the scene was set for an enjoyable afternoon and evening.

My main other reason for the stop over in Tokyo though was to pay a visit once more to the main tourist office to stock up on leaflets for the south of Japan in the same way I'd done for the north a couple of weeks earlier, allowing me to hopefully piece together something of an itinerary to work to. This time a volunteer was on hand to assist with my itinerary; an old Japanese man went through the interesting places I should make priorities using a most engaging style of English: "in the morning you will enjoy the beautiful castle..."

And so it was, having spent a few hours sifting through leaflets I set off from Tokyo the next day. I didn't head directly south, but instead took a trip into the Japanease alps, through the 1998 Winter Olympic host city of Nagano and the nearby castle town of Matsumoto. Although the latter should have made for a good stop by all accounts, it quickly became a hassle as the nice sounding cheap hotel in my guide book upon which my plans rested was closed, leaving me with a heavy backpack in hot, humid conditions and nowhere to stay, and the tourist information office was in a box room in the station while renovations took place and the lady spoke no English. Nevertheless I was there to see a castle and by jove at the very least I was going to get that from the day.

The castle itself while pleasant on the outside was a real pain to navigate on the inside. Not only did you have to take off your shoes and carry them in a plastic bag around the castle, but the steps were steep, the floor hard on the feet and generally it seemed an arrangement concocted to ensure I enjoyed only discomfort at best or pain when trying to negotiate the stairs. Although the exhibits were interesting enough; samurai related including a range of firearms, by this point my enthusiasm for the venture had waned and I only wanted to get out of the place. At least I suppose I can say I've visited a Japanese castle, although I think in the future I might stick to enjoying their exteriors!

I decided to retreat to Nagano for the night, although this proved quite booked up, but the helpful tourist information office there found me a place in the end. I didn't look around too much although I spent part of the evening in a jazz bar I stumbled upon which rather bizarrely had a trio playing Jazzed up versions of such primary school classics as 'the Grandfather clock' and the Sesame street theme, while by the bar the one or two customers there other than myself chain smoked in an attempt to create an authentic jazz bar atmosphere.

From Nagano I've made my way to Kyoto, Japan's cultural heartland, where I spent a couple of days picking my way around the more spectacular of the thousands of temples spread throughout what is otherwise a modern city not unlike many others in Japan. Having spoken to fellow travellers who have had longer to enjoy Kyoto than myself I gather that a principal attraction is the ability to find places of solice within and around the cityscape, be it a well manicured Zen garden or escaping to the hills that both hem the city in and also ensure the countryside is close at hand.

Kyoto is also handy in its position for day trips. Yesterday I spent much of the day in Himeji, appreciating what is generally regarded as Japan's finest castle. Despite my less than endearing experiences with the genre, this larger castle, while still demanding shoes in bags and lots of stairs proved more easily accessible to giant gaijin such as myself.

Today it's been another daytrip, this time to Nara, boasting some of Japan's most important Buddhist temples all set within parkland grazed by quite a number of deer. I've noticed that wherever you go the wildlife is generally expecting to be fed. In gardens if you stand to admire the pond you will quickly find yourself being admired by a number of carp, mouths open optimistically expecting whatever it is carp choose to eat. The deer in Nara were no exception, not helped by various stalls offering deer food for sale. It was at least entertaining to see deer sat rather passively amongst temples, tourist stalls and the throngs of visitors to the park.

Heading yet further southwards I'm stopping over at Okayama in the West of Honshu island before visiting the inland sea, an area of water encircled by Shikoku island to the south and Honshu to the north before reaching Fukuoka for a festival on the 15th. That leaves just a couple of days on the rail pass for Hiroshima and other sights around. It'll be from Fukuoka that I'll eventually depart for Korea but exactly when that will be is very much still to be seen!

Hakodate and beyond

During my time in the hostel in Tokyo I don't think I came across another traveller who was planning to come up here to Hokkaido. Although it's a bit of a trek up here if Hakodate is anything to go by then they're missing out. This modest sized city has a lot going for it: a coastal location with a busy port, fishing fleet and bustling morning fish market; a cable car to one of the finest views you could hope for; a collection of colonial buildings and churches nestling amongst the Japanese style buildings; a good shopping area; great transport links to the mainland and around the city. I'm not sure about whether there's a beach in the vicinity but otherwise it's an enjoyable place to spend some time in a fairly sedate sort of way, although the surrounding countryside looks ideal for more energetic exploration should time permit. Before I even touch the rest of this sizable and varied island it's proven it's worth on a potential itinerary.

My first night in Hakedote proved to be somewhat random in that while looking for a place to eat in the evening I came across an appealing looking restaurant located in a former warehouse on the waterfront and offering a range of seafood dishes and an English menu. On the inside however it turned out to be styled on a German beer hall, so there I was in northern Japan being serenaded with good German oom-pah drinking music!

It was here I discovered that, while Westerners often feel a bit numb with their chop-stick skills, for those who are brought up with chop-sticks the humble knife and fork can prove just as daunting! A couple of Japanese girls on the next table were trying German sausage and the first attempt by one of them to tackle it with a fork made it shoot onto her lap. Although the wurst made a few more attempts for freedom it fortunately didn't make it beyond the plate, but it was quite amusing to watch, and I assume the Japanese receive similar entertainment from watching foreign visitors deal with the local cuisine using unfamiliar implements.

The eating place I ended up in last night was also a decent spot, although as is often the case it's near impossible to ask the waiting-on staff anything as they don't speak a word of anything aside from Japanese. Often I'd like to find out if what I'm ordering constitutes a full dinner in its own right or if I should be ordering something with it. Normally though I have to make do with remaining ignorant and hazarding a guess at what might work for sustinance. Yesterday though I was taking my time which of the many tempting delights to try from the menu when the waiter arrived and began hover. "I need a few more minutes" I say to him; he looks blankly at me. "Can you come back?" I offer, accompanied with some gesturing; blankety-blank. "Look, can you just bugger off for a few minutes and let me decide in peace what I'd like for bloody dinner"; the blankness was deafening.

In reality of course it didn't get that far and when I realised that my pleas were falling on the deafest of knees I opted for some small squid and rice dish just to get rid of him which of course turned out to be absolutely miniscule so I had to order another dish as well, but by this point I'd resigned myself to be fate as the dumb illiterate foreigner.

I have in my defence been trying to learn a little Japanese although progress has been rather slow. Despite being here a few months all this sightseeing and travelling about the place has proven tiring and a significant hindrance in getting much in the way of learning done. Hopefully by the time I leave in a few weeks I'll be a bit further along, but for now while I can manage a few pleasantries I'm otherwise still reliant on a good deal of charades and a good natured and patient host to get through.

I'm off shortly to the Sapporo, the main city of Hokkaido to see what that has to offer. I'm unsure if I'll have time to get to any of the national parks as I'm feeling I need to make the most of my rail pass and get moving, however either way it'll be nice to get a taster for the area and who knows maybe one day I'll come back and visit Hokkaido in a little more detail.

Hakodate at sunset

Hakodate at sunset
Originally uploaded by eurobahn.

Hakodate deservedly has something of a reputation for being a great spot for panoramas. Facing water on two sides it makes for quite a vista at sunset as I discovered yesterday.

In the sticks

I've been offline for a few days owing to being located in the sticks to varying degrees. After leaving Sendai I did indeed stay in a Youth Hostel located within the grounds of a Buddhist temple in the quiet town of Hiraizumi. Although I was able to closely watch the morning prayers (which incidentally just involves the one chap rather than anything group based) there was no meditation class offered. I suspect this was due to the hostel being sparsely populated with guests; as far as I could tell there were just the three of us in all. I opted for the "Japanese breakfast" offered at the hostel given the general lack of other eating options in town, and this turned out to be an interesting if rather bemusing experience. Much of it looked entirely foreign to me and I spent a good while prodding parts of it until one of the other two guests arrived and I followed her lead in tackling the various dishes and bowls of who knows what. I suspect it's something of an acquired taste which my Western tastes buds aren't attuned to, but at least I've tried it! I'll post a photo of it when I get the chance to see if anyone else can help deduce what it comprised.

The alternative breakfast option in many places I've discovered is more familiar but no less challenging in that you have a poached or fried egg or two and a sausage but you're also given chopsticks with which to tackle them. The best solution I've found thus far is to use the knife-like implement to chop it all up into chop-stickable size portions. I've tried to see how the locals do it but I don't like to stare while they're having their breakfast and so far I've not noticed any looks of disapproval resulting from my efforts in breakfasting, although for all I know the Japanese might be too polite to do so anyway!

Hiraizumi offered a temple complex or two, generally enough it fill an afternoon, especially when the main set of temples is up a seemingly endless hill (although curiously the hill seemed a good deal shorter on the return journey, as so often hills do.)

The following day I left my bags at the area's main railway station I'd be passing through again later in the day and took a local train to Kakunodate which boasts a street of former Samurai houses lined with cherry trees. Although cherry blossom isn't in season, and having seen photos I feel coming to Japan in the spring for this reason would alone would be wholly worthwhile, one of the houses did contain an interesting museum of exhibits from the Samurai era ranging from blades and armour to tools, crockery and even toys. Otherwise little Kakunodate wasn't a terribly interesting town, but it filled a few hours pottering about.

Last night I stayed in a particularly out of the way Youth Hostel in (or rather vaguely near) the city of Aomori, right at the top of the island of Honshu. It was a fine place, but as with other recent youth hostel stays it was quiet, to the extent that I was the only guest! This did have its advantages though, as the kind chap running the place drove me to the local convenience store (which would have otherwise been a VERY long walk or a night without dinner) to pick up a microwavable Japanese meal and this morning we had a good chat over breakfast about all manner of things. It turns out he's a member of a Japanese-Irish association, has visited the Emerald Isle on a good few occasions and is quite attached to the place. Indeed breakfast was accompanied to the relaxing and in fact ideal morning tunes of Clannad no less.

I dumped my rucksack in the lockers at the train station as has become something of a daily ritual, owing to Youth Hostels chucking out early but not admitting until late, and had a wander about the town. Unlike the previous day though the weather was grey and despite the smiles of the friendly tourist information staff my heart wasn't in it. So after looking around a former ferry that once did the run to Hokkaido island and around a building built in Expo '88 that shows off the local wares and offers both a wonderful 360 degree film of the area's countryside and of course the obligatory top floor view I decided to cut short my tour of the city and head for, what in the brochures at least, looks like the far more attractive city of Hakodate across the water in Hokkaido, but now reachable by 'Super Hakucho!'* train through the world's longest tunnel.
*The exclamation mark isn't strictly necessary but I think it somehow adds the exciting name of this train, which in reality isn't very exciting aside from the fact it does have a nice illustration on the carriage displays showing where the train is between stops including a nice rendition of the tunnel when we were travelling through that, and when the train changes direction at Aomori all the chairs are made to swivel round to face the direction of travel - what a great idea!

Indeed it is from the lobby of one Hakodate's hotels that I type now. Why a hotel? Well the sole Youth Hostel and cheap Japanese guest houses in town are all full today; it seems to be something of a trend I'm noticing that everywhere's pretty quiet except on Saturdays when you have to look out. However being Captain Spontineity (a new Manga character I'm making efforts to promote while I'm in Japan) I turn up and expect a budget-priced bed waiting for me. Not so here though, and as a result I'm staying in a reasonably priced but decently appointed hotel near the train station. It makes a brief change from the funny ways of the hostels I've been experiencing in the past few days. Aside from never really being sure if I've arranged my futon bed correctly or not, it's common to have really restrictive bathing times; in one place you had just a 90 minute window in the evening to bath and shower. Being a prudish Englishman I'm also a bit hesitant at using these communal washing facilities too, but when in Rome...!

I'm off now to see a few of the sights of Hakodate before dinner. Unlike in Aomori in Honshu where it was dull, when the train emerged from the tunnel in Hokkaido the sun was shining, as it continues to do now. From what I've heard Hokkaido generally misses out the June rainy season that afflicts mucho of the rest of Japan, which suits me. If the internet in the hotel remains free later I may well also attempt to upload a few photos. Until then, farewell from Hakidate and Hokkaido!