Hiroshima to ...............Melbourne!!!!!!

Hiroshima

On reaching Hiroshima, we had managed just under 500km from Fukuoka. As we were staying in a hotel in Hiroshima we had access to a television and the news/weather. The plan was too leave the next morning after a day in Hiroshima and head along the coast and then down through some small islands where we would pick up a ferry that would take us to Kobe. On the morning that we were to set off.... plans were in the balance! That day we had seen the news and the weather and saw that stormy weather was coming in from the south. This was not camping weather. We had to make a decision on whether we could make it through to the ferry to Kobe over the next couple of days without drowning or not. More and more I could see Nat's face looking worried and we started to scheme up some more plans. From Hiroshima we could take the Bullet train and head to Himeji where the famous castle is and then onto Tokyo, or we cycle for a few days and get a boat to Kobe. By this time we didn't hear back from a friend in Kobe so we weren't sure if we be able to meet them so... we tossed a coin. the coin said.. pack the bikes and get a bullet train ticket. Aww how sad.. it was.. but exciting too as we wanted to take a bullet train anyway and this was just a little earlier than planned. It also meant that we needed to change our flight to Australia as we knew when we would be flying now. Australia.. here we come... time to get jobs/house etc.. !!!

Taking the train, we needed to pack the bikes up as you cannot take bikes as bikes on a Bullet train. We purchased some bike bags (rubbish thin bags that cost a fortune) and set off down the river where there was a small patch of grass where we got very oily cleaning up the bikes and dismantling them. After many broken English/Japanese conversations with shocked locals we had the bikes in two bright red/blue bags. Suddenly we were VERY aware of the weight of the bikes and parts. Before we had two lovely useful shiney bicycles.. now we have two very awkward, heavy lumps of luggage :( Still, we'd get a taxi to the station so shouldn't be much of an issue.

The taxi arrived at the hotel and the driver, all dressed in a nice neat uniform with matching white gloves got out of his cleancar and looked a little shocked to see what he was going to have to put in his taxi. A few minutes later, the taxi, bikes bursting out the back, set off for the short trip to the station. When there we searched for a trolley to take the 4 heavy bags (2 bags containing the panniers and 2 bike bags), up the the platform. After a minute, a nice chap donning a suit came to help and said there weren't any trolleys but he'd help us to the platform. What a nice chap.. but no trolleys? At the platform, the chap mentioned that Japanese people don't tend to take luggage on the train so that is why there were no trolleys about. On the train we also realised there wasn't any luggage area to store the bikes either. All the way to Himeji I was jumping up and down at each station to clear the bike bags out of the way for passengers to get in/out of the train. Oh dear.. how we did feel so awkward!!!!
Himeji

Himeji was fantastic though. We found a nice little hotel in the city and explored our way round the famous castle where James Bond, You Only Live twice was part filmed. GREAT, another Bond location ticked off for me.. I am a Bond fan ;) Inside the castle we also saw some Samurai uniforms which ticked another box for us as something we wanted to see. Around the outside of the castle they had some wonderful Edo style gardens which had the usual ponds with huge koi swimming about.

The next day saw us up early, grabbing another poor taxi driver to get us to the station and catching the Bullet train to Tokyo. Why not leave our luggage in the station I hear you say? Well, again it seemed to us that Japanese don't seem to take much luggage so the left luggage (lockers only), were so small only a bag could fit in there so we had to lug our bike bags about. In the stations I had to take the bike bags about 20m and then go back for the bags as Nat couldn't carry them by herself. it was like some kind of crazy relay game as I needed to do it quickly and go a decent distance to make the trip worth it without causing suspicion over left luggage in the stations. There were loads of notices too about the G-8 summit and high security alerts watching out for left bags in public areas.

The journey to Tokyo was pleasant with a 3 hr trip on the bullet train. We had previously booked a hotel in Tokyo near the main station as we wanted a cheapish short cab ride to the hotel and then back ready for the bus to the airport.
Tokyo

Tokyo was fantastic. It was only here that we made contact with the friend in Kobe but by this time it was sadly too late to meet up. We shall come back one day!!! We did managed to meet up with someone I had met on a bike meeting in the UK though. Peter kindly showed us some of the older parts of the city centre at night and we had some great food and beer. We spent 4 superb days in Tokyo looking around taking pictures of everything and everyone. Nat was desperate to see the people dress up like cartoon characters (cosplay) and wanted to see the mad cross roads where it looks like thousands of people cross in all directions. They have zebra crossings that not only cross in a square on a junction but also cross right over at angle. The traffic lights change at the same time and everyone crosses together... mad stuff!!

It was in Tokyo that we found out why Japanese people don't appear to carry luggage. In fact japanese people DO have luggage after all!!!! What they do though is pay a courier company to collect their luggage and transport it to wherever they are going. This could be when going from one place in the country to another.. like we were.. or even taking bags to the airport. They collect their bags at the airport from the courier. Amazing stuff!.. WISH we knew this before!!!!

Another interesting querky thing we saw was maid cafes. These seem to be cafes where the girls dress up in maid outfits serving you. Well, although this was tempting of course we just saw them from the outside. We have heard they can be quite interesting inside though depending on the type of cafe.

Tokyo and Japan generally wasn't as busy as we had imagined. Maybe coming from London we were used to so many people but we felt there were more busy places in the world. Here the trip had to come to an end. After 4 months on the road and many many fantastic days, some challenging ones, but mostly amazing days, we felt it was time to start a normal-ish life again with jobs/house etc.. Although our plan was to go to Adelaide, we thought we would go to see our friends Rick and Raj in Melbourne first and then head up the coast.

Here we feel we would like to thank everyone we have met that has looked after us on our trip and made it such a fantastic experience. From India to Japan we have met so many wonderful people and amazing escaped any bad experiences!! (you normally have at least one dodgy experience on a trip like this).

We hope you have enjoyed reading about our experiences and wish you all the best.

Dave and Natty

Japan: Fukuoka - Hiroshima

Taking the overnight ferry to Fukuoka was a an interesting and enlightening introduction to Japan. Our cabin we had ordered was superb and spacious and after checking out the channels on the flat screen tv we set out and about to find some food. Faced with a dozen vending machines that even doshed out fried chicken and chips or another machine that dispensed tickets for a meal to have in the restaurant, we opted for the latter. We managed to compare squiggly character writing with pictures to the machine and managed to get some great spaghetti bolognaise.
After a good nights sleep I awoke to check out the window to see how far we were from the coast. Immediately I jumped up to see we were already there!! I shouted at nat to get up and jump out the cabin to make sure we wouldn`t some how go back to Korea (not that Korea is bad just that we wanted to go to Japan!). Unwashed and tired we rushed about asking everyone how long we had been here. Eventually we found out that although we had been there for an hour, customs wasn`t open for another 30 mins so we had time to relax. PHEW! Off I went to have a shower....

We decided to stay in a hotel in Fukuoka for the first night so we could meet up with Nat`s Japanese friend from Thailand, Ai. We found a place that looked good off the net so set the GPS up. It turned out that our little hotel was actually a Japanese style hotel named a ryokan. Right away we were in a cultural shock zone wearing slippers for every activity (changing them for the loo even), Japanese robes and joining people for a common bath!! After that experience we met up with Ai for some Ramen noodles which Fukuoka is famous for. Ai even kindly took to the most famous street stall of them all and the food was delicious...."oishi!!! Ok I am learning some Japanese ..some... not much ;)

The first day of cycling took us down the coast passing a fish and chip shop which we excitedly stopped at and sadly found it selling rice not fish and chips, then up and out of main Fukuoka. Outside 7-Eleven shop Nat noticed a bicycle loaded up with panniers and crazy flags. We found the owner who turned out to be Nakamura san (Michio) who had been riding for 7 months and was completing his 5th time around Japan by bicycle. Fortunately for us he was heading in the same direction and offered to cycle with us and show us a free campsite north of where we were. 50km later (Nat getting tired as we had now cycled 70km), we arrived in a small town of Wakamatsu. On top of the nearest hill was a lovely free campsite with facilities other than showers. Why haven`t Japanese campsites we have visited so far got showers? Well we hope to stay at another tomorrow so lets see if that has one. Michio turned out to bve a great guy who introduced us to a famous potter in that area, a Japanese tea teacher who made me three cups of matcha (very green bubbly tea). Nat had one but well, when in Rome.. After tea the teachers husband came back from school and proceeded to sing to us as he was a classical singing teacher. All very shocking in a pleasant way. Michio also introduced us to a friend of in town who kindley gave us coffee and then off we went the town for the day and visited all historical buidings and museeums, finishing off with a wonderful lunch of sashimi (raw fish). We did plan to set off that afternoon to cycle but opted instead when sayng our farewells to Michio, to head back to the free campsite for another night and set off early the next day.

All fresh from our introduction to Japan, new names given to us (Davido san and Natto san) and knoledge gained from Michio on free camping in Japan, we set off north passing a town named Ozuki. After stopping at a shop outside the town for supplies, I noticed a fishing park (Japanese LOVE fishing and no suprise why as there are so many great fishing rivers here). Down by river was plenty of space for camping with toilets nearby and a small shelter for cooking/eating. Perfect! Although Nat worried a little about safety on sleeping 'rough' I reassured her it was safe.. well it had to be as Michio was a living examle ;) It was actually great and after the first night we felt relieved that we had surved the night and set off after a toilet shower (our plastic bowl used with a tap in the toilet, standing naked quickly before anyone wants to use the loo).

Heading up into the hills/mountains we passed amazing Akiyoshi dai, the largest limestone karst plateau in Japan, feeling very much like we were in north England or Scotland. Very strange feeling indeed! Heading down to the coast we landed in Hagi which is a small town with small streets where you can imagine what the town used to be like in Samurai times. Although there was a campsite there in the town we decided to head back up into the hills and rough camp for a night before we got to a 'proper' campsite. After 50km Nat was displaying signs that she couldn't cycle any further so a campsite needed to be found. It was 1800 and light was fading fast. We had two options, back of a disused garage which was so spooky it could be in Scooby Doo, or down a ditch off the road.. mmm we opted for the ditch with proptection of the trees. I was very excited about this option initially but after looking at Nat's face in the tent when we ducked everytime a car went passed, I knew we couldn't do this again. We surved the night though and just as we were packing up at 0500, a dog walker passed us and with a big smile I said good morning in my best Japanese. Although shocked, the lady responded and hurridly walked off. Later that day we passed through a wonderful town named Tsuwano which was very old and bueatiful and any Koi carp experts out there might also know if for the 65000 koi carp there. Brilliant!! Real japanese Koi carp! More Japanese experiences on our list!! This cheered us up and we set off for the 'proper campsite' at the top of a steeeeeep hill. On reaching the top of the hill, Makurase campsite which we were hoping had internet, a shop etc (being Japan), turned out to be .... closed. Oh dear.. this was not going quite to plan. As it was late in the day, we decided to stay there anyway even though a few people came up in their cars for the view and tried to speak to us. They seemed indifferent that we were there though in a closed campsite so we stayed and made ourselves at home. No water in the showers and no electricity, we used our dish and a bucket we found and were lucky that the taps for cleaning pots/pans still worked ok. We stayed there two nights and managed to wash our clothes even though it rained all day and sett off promptly the next day.

Riding down the mountain the weather was great and the damp clothes pegged to our bikes (as usual) dried quickly. We cheered up and started to think about what we had seen so far and what experiences we still wanted to have and what we didn't want to have (sleep in ditches). We passed famous onsen (spa) town named Kakinoki where we thought we would recharged camera batteries and Nat would get her body recharged in a spa! Superb idea and landed up in another friendly ryokan (Japanese hotel) visited the spa. Being quite new to this game I decided to take my towel with me to the spa room just in case the James Bond film (You Only Live Twice) was incorrect and men don't really bath naked with each other. The towels here are tiny though which meant not much got covered but to me relief (I think), the men in the room were all naked like me!! I saw them with their little towels on their heads in a small square so I had a wash (got to shower/scrub before entering the spa), and did the same which caused a bit of laughter (my towel was dry and theirs ere damp to keep their heads cool). The spa was great though and although nat and I had originally decided to stay in there for 2 hrs, 20 mins was enough to boil us alive. We had a WONDERFUL evening with dinner at the ryokan and then an unexpected free trip to the river to see the fireflies! We saw some in Malaysia before and this was a lovely way to finish off the evening courtesy of the friendly lady working at the ryokan.

Heading down towards to the coast, we passed the famous 'Kintaikyo' bridge in Iwakuni. This bridge has fantastic arches and apparently made using no nails. All interesting stuff and great photo opportunities. We headed up the coast for an island named Miyajima. There is a famous shrine here (Itsukushima Shrine) which is built on the coast with the tide in mind flooding around the shrine. It's definitely worth a visit like many of the places we have been too, but this island itself is a beauty spot. We camped in a superb campsite (open this time), and were graced with the local deer that roam this island quite freely. They walk about all over the place and in the campsite, one even got a bit frisky with my pannier at one stage!

Heading up the coast we arrived at Hiroshima. Somehow we ended up on a bit of a nightmare road which turned out to be a dual carriage way and one definately not safe for bikes. Before long we had a black and white car with red flashing lights pull over infront of us. This was of course a police car! before long we were off the busy carriage way and onto nice small roads but not before our particulars are taken including passport details. All good fun for Nat who proceeded to use it as a good photo . With smiles all round we were off to Hiroshima the safer way and before long found ourselves in the Peace Memorial park which used to be the center of Hiroshima and a once busy and prosperous heart of a city. With our guide of Japan we found a cheapish business hotel (but ryokan room.. cool) and made a plan to stay for two nights. Unfortunately made famous by the target of a atom bomb in 1945, the city has some very interesting museums and displays regarding that fateful day. We spent many hours there learning more about the 'A Bomb' explosion. They have a building which managed to that day (well sort of), and they have preserved the 'dome' building as a reminder of war and especially that of the nuclear kind. Another world heritage site and again, definitely worth a visit if you come to Japan. A quick note about visiting Japan if you are thinking of it. Before I came here I was concerned about the cost of visiting but if you are from the UK (like many who will read this are), you should not be put off by the costs here as it's generally cheaper than the UK these days.

Weather depending (been lucky so far but it's raining now), we plan to head up the coast for some island hopping then onto Kobe/Himiji castle and then Tokyo. We wish to try as many things as possible here in the short time we have so another dream of ours is to take the Bullet Train (Shinkansen). This has been a dream of mine ever since I saw it on Tomorrow's World years ago.

Another last point I would like to make is that Nat had developed an unhealthy fascination for trying out public toilets. Many toilets here come with all sorts of gadgets that spray water and even blow dry... They run on 100 volts though so we can't take one to Australia Nat. Shame.