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
