I thought I`d put a map up showing where we have been and where we are still planning to go in our 3 weeks in Japan. The red blobs are where we have stayed for at least one night. The blue blobs are other places we have visited, either on our way to somewhere else or as a day trip. Green blobs are where we are planning on staying over the next few days until we leave for South Korea.
View Japan in a larger map
Volcanoes and onsen - Kyushu
To try and see a different side of Japan we've spend the last few days visiting some smaller towns and spending our time out of the huge cities.
Ibusuki - a really sleepy seaside town at the southern most tip of the Satsuma province, as well as the tiny oranges they also grow giant radishes around here. We spent a morning at the onsen (hot spring) there, starting with a sand bath on the beach, basically being buried alive by the bath attendants and left to sweat in the sand for 15 minutes. Afterwards we made use of the traditional Japanese bath which included a 84c sauna complete with tv.
Clarkie wearing his yukata (a Japanese dressing gown) because the sand bath is mixed everyone has to wear one of these, apparently it also aides the sweating part of the experience!
Our last trip on the bullet train.
Sakurajima - one of Japan's most active volcanoes. The kids here wear hard hats to school in case there's an eruption. The volcano has erupted over 500 times this year and the whole area is covered in ash.
We spent a night in a youth hostel which looked like something from an army base in the company of three middle aged Japanese people. The hostel had it's own onsen, no showers, so it's been communal bathing for the last few days!
Clarkie's standing on the lava field created in the 1914 eruption which joined the island to the mainland.
Hot water foot bath with slightly weird brown stuff floating in it, but we're pretty sure it was mud/rock from the volcano!
Aso Another volcano but we could walk up to the crater of this one and the whole area stank of sulphur which it was spitting out. Mount Aso is the largest active volcano in Japan, it has bunkers to provide refuge for tourists if the volcano erupts, we only saw smoke though, no lava in sight!
Ibusuki - a really sleepy seaside town at the southern most tip of the Satsuma province, as well as the tiny oranges they also grow giant radishes around here. We spent a morning at the onsen (hot spring) there, starting with a sand bath on the beach, basically being buried alive by the bath attendants and left to sweat in the sand for 15 minutes. Afterwards we made use of the traditional Japanese bath which included a 84c sauna complete with tv.
Clarkie wearing his yukata (a Japanese dressing gown) because the sand bath is mixed everyone has to wear one of these, apparently it also aides the sweating part of the experience!
Our last trip on the bullet train.
Sakurajima - one of Japan's most active volcanoes. The kids here wear hard hats to school in case there's an eruption. The volcano has erupted over 500 times this year and the whole area is covered in ash.
We spent a night in a youth hostel which looked like something from an army base in the company of three middle aged Japanese people. The hostel had it's own onsen, no showers, so it's been communal bathing for the last few days!
Clarkie's standing on the lava field created in the 1914 eruption which joined the island to the mainland.
Hot water foot bath with slightly weird brown stuff floating in it, but we're pretty sure it was mud/rock from the volcano!
Aso Another volcano but we could walk up to the crater of this one and the whole area stank of sulphur which it was spitting out. Mount Aso is the largest active volcano in Japan, it has bunkers to provide refuge for tourists if the volcano erupts, we only saw smoke though, no lava in sight!
Japan - Part 2
We spent four days in Kyoto, an old imperial capital of Japan, visiting plenty of temples with day trips to Osaka and Nara. For the last week Japan trip we're traveling around Kyushu, the southern most island, it's a lot warmer here than further north which suits us just fine now that our bodies have come accustomed to warmer climates!
The super fast 'shinkansen' bullet train. The Japanese are really polite to the extent that conductors, cleaners and attendants on the trains bow to the carriage when they enter and leave.
Feeding the deer in Nara, just outside Kyoto.
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Katsura Imperial villa garden, Kyoto.
Himeji castle between Kyoto and Hiroshima.
View from Miyajima island, just outside Hiroshima. We took the easy option and took the cable car up then walked down, a wise choice as everyone walking up the thousands of steps looked like they were about to keel over!
Osaka aquarium. Clarkie is impersonating the huge spider crab which looks like it would attack him if the glass wasn't there!
The aquarium is home to two huge whale sharks, this is their smaller hammerhead relative.
The super fast 'shinkansen' bullet train. The Japanese are really polite to the extent that conductors, cleaners and attendants on the trains bow to the carriage when they enter and leave.
Feeding the deer in Nara, just outside Kyoto.
.Katsura Imperial villa garden, Kyoto.
Himeji castle between Kyoto and Hiroshima.
View from Miyajima island, just outside Hiroshima. We took the easy option and took the cable car up then walked down, a wise choice as everyone walking up the thousands of steps looked like they were about to keel over!
Osaka aquarium. Clarkie is impersonating the huge spider crab which looks like it would attack him if the glass wasn't there!
The aquarium is home to two huge whale sharks, this is their smaller hammerhead relative.
Sumo time
We've had an amazing few days in Toyko at the start of three weeks in Japan. Our phrase book has come in useful and we don't know what were eating most of the time but the city is amazing. The next stop is Kyoto.
Our first Japanese temple visit, there are a lot more to come!
Crazy crossings
We managed to get tickets to a sumo tournament in Tokyo. It lasts all day starting with the lower ranks and working up, it lasts for 15 days and all the wrestlers fight everyday.
Flags at the sumo stadium
The largest sumo wrestler at the tournament on the left, and probably the fattest person I've ever seen. Unbelievably the smaller guy on the right won the bout.
Slurping 'Sumo soup' at the tournament. They must eat a lot more than this stuff to get to the size they are!
A lovely Japanese man with some strangely dressed dogs, one's wearing a tutu and the other is sporting a lovely all in one denim outfit! They love their dogs here, mainly the rat looking type, and carry them around in bags, dress them up and put sunglasses on them. Apparently some people do the same with rabbits here but we're still on the lookout for that!
Our first Japanese temple visit, there are a lot more to come!
Crazy crossings
We managed to get tickets to a sumo tournament in Tokyo. It lasts all day starting with the lower ranks and working up, it lasts for 15 days and all the wrestlers fight everyday.
Flags at the sumo stadium
The largest sumo wrestler at the tournament on the left, and probably the fattest person I've ever seen. Unbelievably the smaller guy on the right won the bout.
Slurping 'Sumo soup' at the tournament. They must eat a lot more than this stuff to get to the size they are!
A lovely Japanese man with some strangely dressed dogs, one's wearing a tutu and the other is sporting a lovely all in one denim outfit! They love their dogs here, mainly the rat looking type, and carry them around in bags, dress them up and put sunglasses on them. Apparently some people do the same with rabbits here but we're still on the lookout for that!
Last few weeks in Oz
Here are a few highlights from the last few weeks. We've done a lot of driving, starting in Sydney along the south coast through Melbourne and Adalaide, then back to Sydney via Broken Hill in the middle of nowhere. Finally over the last couple of weeks we've driven along the Gold and Sunshine coasts up to Bundaberg to sample some rum and back down to Brisbane for our flight to Japan.
The plan for the next couple of months is 3 weeks in Japan, a ferry to South Korea, a flight to Vietnam and then to work our way overland through Laos, Cambodia and Thailand to Kuala Lumpur.
The lovely Dorrigo National park on the Waterfall Way, inland from Coffs Harbour on the east coast.
The boat trip to Lady Mugrove Island on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. The snorkeling etc was amazing the really rough trip to get there with lots of people being sick on the boat was not! This must have been early on as Clarkie's looking fairly happy, 9 chuppa chup lollies later (an attempt to quell the 'motion of the ocean') we arrived at an island paradise! We spent the day on an island walk, snorkeling with turtles and brilliantly coloured tropical fish, and on a submarine tour to see more of the coral.
Who ate all the pies? We did! Although I think we prefer Margaret Nightingale's meat and potato pies!
'Stonking waves at Noosa', apparently!
The plan for the next couple of months is 3 weeks in Japan, a ferry to South Korea, a flight to Vietnam and then to work our way overland through Laos, Cambodia and Thailand to Kuala Lumpur.
The lovely Dorrigo National park on the Waterfall Way, inland from Coffs Harbour on the east coast.
The boat trip to Lady Mugrove Island on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. The snorkeling etc was amazing the really rough trip to get there with lots of people being sick on the boat was not! This must have been early on as Clarkie's looking fairly happy, 9 chuppa chup lollies later (an attempt to quell the 'motion of the ocean') we arrived at an island paradise! We spent the day on an island walk, snorkeling with turtles and brilliantly coloured tropical fish, and on a submarine tour to see more of the coral.
Who ate all the pies? We did! Although I think we prefer Margaret Nightingale's meat and potato pies!
'Stonking waves at Noosa', apparently!
Roos!!
After a near miss with the van and a huge kangeroo the other day I thought we should upload some photos of the local wildlife! So far we've seen kangeroos, lizards, spiders, koalas, wombats, emus, wild turkeys, loads of amazingly coloured parrots, dingos, a tasmanian devil, lots of fish,jelly fish and one living snake (plus plenty of squashed ones on the road).
Feeding the roos at Australian Reptile park just north of Sydney.Clarkie was keener than me to have a kangeroo licking his hand as you can see from the photos!
A huge jelly fish I found on the beach a few metres down from where Clarkie was surfing. There was no way that i was getting in the water for a swim after seeing this bad boy.
A koala at the NSW koala hospital, which is housed with with lots of blind, three legged, crippled and geriatric friends.
Feeding the roos at Australian Reptile park just north of Sydney.Clarkie was keener than me to have a kangeroo licking his hand as you can see from the photos!
A huge jelly fish I found on the beach a few metres down from where Clarkie was surfing. There was no way that i was getting in the water for a swim after seeing this bad boy.
A koala at the NSW koala hospital, which is housed with with lots of blind, three legged, crippled and geriatric friends.
