Walking Ixus

I went to yet another cultural event here in Tokyo. This Japan leg has been all about culture. Visiting the tombs and temples of Nikko. Climbing Matsumoto-jo. In past trips, I attended the Sanja Matsuri, the biggest event in Asakusa (Tokyo). Now i’m hooked on the rhythmic beat and the visual delight of the Koenji Awaodori.

Awaodori dancers in motion…

More of the same…

Aw heck, here’s THE Awaodori dancers starting the parade!
Roy has been attending various Awaodori for over ten years and this year, he broke in moi and Brad who also works and resides in Tokyo (lucky!).

One of them is really excited!
We got to JR Koenji-eki early and planted ourselves on the street. After several runs to 7-11 for fluids (me) and a run to McD’s for a cup(!) of french fries and a Coke (Brad), the countdown ended and the 50th Koenji Awaodori began!

The crowd across the street from us and the reviewing stand
And then the worst possible thing happened. Battery died! Crap! So when Brand and Roy post pix, I’ll link accordingly in this post.
The dancers were fun, the beat was infectious, my feet hurt and had a great time! Must try to make it next year!

I came to a realization early on this trip. Actually, it was from a copy of the Straits Times that I read on SQ11 (Hey UAL, guess what? You CAN get newspapers and magazines on REAL airlines!) about midway through my flight.
I like the whole idea of staying in clean hostels and mucking about on the ground eating street food. I like going to local festivals and hanging out where locals do. Doing local things. I also luurve Business Class, airport lounges, Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) and the Shinkansen.
But I hate wasting time. I hate waiting. And I like to plan things. My entire itinerary on JR on this trip? Planned to the minute 4 weeks prior. And guess what? It worked! I have a list of HSBC and Citibank locations for every destination on this trip. I can’t travel anywhere withouth my iPod and MacBook and I try to stay in establishments that provide free broadband or wi-fi.
These things sound contradictory? Hostels and Business Class? Not really the traditional backpacker? Guess what? I’m not a backpacker, I’m a flashpacker. Yup, flashpacker, yet another term you get to learn reading this site. At least it ain’t Singlish. Wah Lau!
The latter exclaimation was Singlish, by the way.

I’ve been travelling to different parts of Japan for the past few years. During those trips, I’ve stayed at all kinds of lodging.
I’ve stayed in business hotels, international hotels, ryokan (both semi-fancy and basic), minshuku and hostels. Until tonight, I’ve never stayed in a capsule hotel. Now I’m going to be in one for 2 days.
Now, the question always comes up. “why”? Well, there’s a few good reasons for that.
First, it’s on the Yamanote near JR Akibahara-eki. That means it’s on the loop and will save a lot of time coming and going over the next 48 hours.
Second, the price isn’t too bad. I got charged Y3700. It’s Y500 more than I usually pay for Tokyo lodging, but it’s worth it for the extra hour I save coming and going to the hotel I usually stay at.
Third, I’ve never stayed at a capsule hotel before. And capsule hotels, like them or not, are iconic places of modern Tokyo.
The ritual of staying here is different. First off, you put your shoes in a shoe locker next to the check in desk. You hand the clerk the key to your shoe locker and the night’s room charges and he checks you in. You get your capsule assignment and a matching key for the lockers in the locker room on the second floor. You change out of your street clothes into yukata for lounging about the hotel. The shower room and communal smoking lounge are also on the second floor.

My assigned bunk, #703…

…was on the bottom left of this row.
Each capsule is a self sufficent sleeping space with its own alarm clock, lights, TV, vent and radio controlled by a handy dandy control panel on your right as you lay down inside.

Capsule Control Panel. Also makes a handy shelf.
Contrary to popular belief, there’s enough room for sleeping one person. And that’s about it. The capsule was just longer than 2 meters and a bit over 1 meter in height and width. I could sit up inside the capsule, but that’s about it.

How my capsule looks when I’m sitting up in it
If you want to do anything else besides sleep, you have to leave your capsule and putter about in the common areas of the hotel. Besides the 2nd floor facilities, there’s vending machines for coffee and beverages as well as for neatly pressed dress shirts and underwear (!) in the lobby. There’s also broadband, wired in the common areas and wireless on the capsule floors. The router on my floor was not connecting to the internet, a common theme of this trip. So to get emails, I was forced to drag my MacBook to the common areas to plug in. Once online, it was really fast!
Capsule hotels are generally considered the lodging of last resort, usually for salarymen who missed the last train home after a night of carousing at the local izakaya. Because of this, there aren’t any real facilities for luggage, since who goes to work with a carry on, right? There is one luggage rack in the back of the lobby, but otherwise, luggage is locked and chained under the main staircase that leads to the second floor.
Now despite these drawbacks (and the feeling I was back in the dorm in college), I’d recommend staying at least one night in a capsule hotel. They are clean and safe (this IS Japan, remember?) and although most capsule hotels are men only, the one I stayed at reserved the top floor for women. That top floor had capsules, a common room and bath and shower rooms. Self contained capsule hotel in a capsule hotel.
Just don’t bring a lot of baggage with ya…

She’s apparently part of Japan Post’s advertising campaign.

I love creative advertising!
Yup, that’s the power of advertising. Made me look!!

I’m at JR Nagano eki making a transfer to the Asama 546 that will spirit me back to the fleshpots of Tokyo.

I had half an hour to kill and there was the small matter of the JR East Pass.
Seems that I miscalculated its validity. It’s 5 days from the day of activation. My original plan was to brave the Tokyo crush on Monday AM, getting out to NRT by 0900. Problem was that since I activated my pass on Wednesday evening, it expires Sunday evening!
I considered my options. Coughing up Y1050 for the Keisei Tokkyu and sleeping two hours on the train. Or…
I could blow out of Tokyo on Sunday night, spend the night in Narita (the town, not the airport lah!) and use my JR East Pass to the very end!
Which of course I’m going to do! And since all of JR is networked and computerised, I simply went into the ticket office and asked for a N’EX ticket (in nihongo, I might add!) for Sunday night. And the ticket was issued. And still had 25 minutes to spare. Depending on how things go on Sunday, I may head out there eariler. Narita is one of those “places I’ve not been yet” and would fit in nicely with the theme of this trip…
Amazing how good customer service and an excellent rail system can make me, Joe Cranky traveller, uncranky! Emphasis on the “good customer service”. Ain’t finding either with Amtrak or UAL lah!

After lunch and a JR ride back to Matsumoto, I went to the Clock Museum to get me one of them thar free bicycles. I filled out the form and was told to bring it back before 1700. Easy. No deposit required and only a cursory ID check (US Passport with scary picture).
According to the maps at the JR eki, it’s about 1.2 KM to Matsumoto-jo. Thank goodness I had a bicycle! Remember, it’s still hot and humid outside. Walking is a bit of a chore. Riding is much easier. It took only a few minutes to cover this distance on wheels. Matsumoto-jo is one of two castles with a moon viewing room and the oldest intact castle in Japan.

Someone viewing something from the moon viewing room

It’s called the “Crow Castle” because it’s in varying shades of black
Many of the other castles in Japan were either burned down (Japan and fire dun mix, since there’s a lot of wood here), destroyed and rebuilt, or were flattened by the 14th Air Force in WWII. Some castles in Japan were just lucky to not have been damaged during the war. Matsumotojo escaped war damage because A: There’s nothing here of strategic value and B: Matsumotojo was state of the art for its time but was never laid siege to in anger back in the day.

But it’s laid siege to every day by visitors. And I’m one of the horde! Wahahahah!
When you reach the top of the tower (where the Shogun had his office), you’re rewarded with a commanding view of the Matsumoto area.

View from the top of the tower. Puuuurty!

The castle has bi-lingual signage when it comes to telling the story about the castle.
All the floors are open on a self-guided tour and there was method to the design of the castle. Like these hella steep stairs. Some of the older folks couldn’t climb up. The kids loved scampering up and down these stairs. I was somewhere inbetween.

Climbing these “stairs” was akin to climbing up a verry steep ladder

The view looking down. Yes, it’s quite high.
Besides the castle, there’s a collection of ancient weapons donated by one of Matsumoto’s leading citizens. The collection ranges from matchlocks to flintlocks to the first revolvers.

Some of the first firearms introduced to Japan
And this was once all a private collection! The weapons displays, however was mostly in Japanese. Hopefully they’ll be a translation soon. It’s neat stuff, worthy of a History Channel special.

Well, I think it says something about the first matchlocks used in combat in Japan…

Assembly instructions. Got it. Just like IKEA furniture…

One common thread in all the ryokan that I’ve stayed at over the past few years is that the smaller it is, the more it feels hospitable. I mean, big ryokan won’t collect you from the eki in a driving rainstorm. Small ones do.
My only problem (NOT a complaint) is that Matsumoto dun have enough low cost ryokan. Nonya Ryokan was the most affordable I could find through the booking engine I use and that was Y5000 for one night. Usually my lodging costs at MOST, Y4000/day. That’s a difference of Y1000. And includes wi-fi. Just something to keep in mind if you come up here to eat wasabi infused food or nearly bump your head on a low column in Matsumoto Jo. Y1000 is most of a meal here. Or two beers. Keeping that in mind, I got on a train with a bunch of other overprepared Japanese hikers equipped with backpacks, hats and ekiben and headed out to Hodaka, where Japan’s largest wasabi farm is. And a nature area with a bunch of trails for them to hike. Since I was underprepared, I went to the farm. Overprepared? Go commune with nature.
When I arrived at JR Hodaka eki, I saw very little in basi here. The tourist information bureau suggested that I rent a bicycle. Since much of the area here is flat (again!), it shouldn’t be a problem, if you ignore the searing heat and humidity.

The bike rental place, just outside of the Eki
Y200/hour for a bicycle? Whatta bargain! And they didn’t even take a deposit or make me prepay! The guy spoke english, drew out a path on the map and sent me on my way. I luuuuurve this part of Japan! The ride to the wasabi farm turned out to be one of the high points of the trip. It was very pretty and serene. And very green.

Once you clear the town area, this is what the next kilometer or two looks like.

The country air was nice and there weren’t too many cars on the road

This is the river you cross before you enter the farm.
14 minutes and one wrong turn later, I found the wasabi farm.

It was easy since the path was well marked. If you followed the map!

looks like something you’d see marking a winery
The first thing I noticed about this place was that there’s a lot of stuff to buy. And then there’s the wasabi. First you can have it in raw form.

I got yr wasabi, rrrrright here!
Or you can eat it in pickles, ice cream, soba, chocolate and most every kind of food you can infuse that eye tearing flavor into. I had the ice cream. The wasabi taste was there but subtle. The sweet cancelled out the harsh sting so all you had was a nice aftertaste, like a good cigar. *here ends my Anthony Bourdain moment*

This is how a wasabi ice cream stand looks like. It was more like a softie than hard pack ice cream.
The next thing I noticed was that there were a lot of kids here. With their parents. Much of the farm is actually well tended openspace with trails for hiking and strategically placed eateries for when you get hungry after hiking.

Here’s the map of the farm. In some ways, it reminds me of an amusement park

This is a strategically placed wasabi soba restaurant
There’s a place on the trail with great views, two temples and a place to soak your feet in the water that’s feeding the wasabi. It’s hella cold BTW. According to the brochure, it’s 12 degrees cold and that for good wasabi, the water needs to be hella cold while above, the plants need to be hella hot.

The wasabi is covered from direct sun while it’s irrigated by cold mountain water runoff.

It looks like a river of wasabi.

Soaking your tired tootsies in cold mountain water

MatsumoTooooooooooooo! MatsumoTooooooooooo!
That’s what greets you when you get off the tokkyu that brings you in from Nagano. A very happy welcome to Matsumoto, gateway town to the Japan Alps and close to one of the biggest wasabi farm/theme parks around and a big nature area that’s only accessible when the snow melts.
Matsumoto is a proper Japanese city. The center of town is where the eki is. There are loads of cabs and basi stops. And directly across the street is a McDonald’s. But not just any McD’s. This one is 24 hours and has some VERY nice talent after hours.
At a US McD’s, you get crackheads and bums after dark. No talent. None. At. All.
Nonya Ryokan is about 10 minutes away from JR Matsumoto-eki. The walk itself is pleasant since about half of the journey is on a pedestrianized street. And did I mention the talent?
Yup, I think I did.
Back to the Ryokan. It’s been open for close to 20 years and is family run. It has character. Dark wooden floors. My room is 6 jo, twice as big as the usual cubbyhole I stay at in Tokyo.

Now this is a big impressive room. Y5000/night and it could be yours too…
Did I mention it’s on the 3rd floor? *grunt* And the floors, even though they look gorgeous, squeak hella loud. This will become a problem later when I had to use the head at 0230. I swear, even with the most “stealthy like ninja” effort, the floorboards still hella squeaked.
“hey, the guy on the third floor is going to the head! Just thought you’d like to know, the rest of the building!!”
Anyway, after settling in and taking a shower AND a bath, I threw on some clothes and wandered around the town center. I found, in no specific order that Matsumoto has a kick ass castle, a clock museum, a nice developed riverfront area, a Muji, an obsession with frogs and no other late night places to eat (it was around 2230 when I was farting around outside) other than McD’s.

Matsumoto has a nicely preserved riverfront area

It reminds me of Kyoto’s riverfront area. Very nice.

Apparently, this froggie is on the local maps as a landmark. It’s across from a koban.
I also noticed a LOT of bicycles. Most of Matsumoto is flat (funny that, since they’re in the mountains) and there’s no subway (not big enough). So there are a lot of bicycles here. Turns out that certain buildings/establishments participate in a “free bicycle program”. You ask for the bike and fill out your particulars. They give you a key and tell you to bring it back before 1700 (when they close).
So tomorrow will be a day of wasabi farm, clocks and bicycles. And JR East as I head back to Tokyo to my waiting capsule.

Sidebar: So ALL of Asia is like Singapore in the summer, eh? Guess I deal better with cold than with hot humid heat…
I spent 18 hours in transit yesterday. First it was a 10 hour flight on SQ11 from LAX to NRT. Can I tell you I’m in luuurve with SQ all over again?
Even in steerage, I mean “economy”, I got 70+ movies ON DEMAND on my own vid screen, I couldn’t finish my meals, they fed us soooo much and I would have proposed to at least two of the Stewardesses on the spot if common sense and community property laws weren’t hovering around my head.
The flight left an hour late out of LAX but strangely enough, we made up the time enroute and landed NRT 15 minutes early. Glad that happened because even with fudge time, I was still on a tight clock because…
They redid Terminal 1 at Narita! The South wing is all new and is where all the Star Alliance airlines are at (I’ll write more about that when I fly on to SIN). I spent 20 minutes hunting for the Citibank ATM that used to be at arrivals after being misdirected. The person I asked probably presumed that I wanted to stay in the South Terminal when she told me to go up to 4th Floor departures.
I went up there. Got my cash. And won an American Express pen!
Then when I got back down to the arrivals floor and walked from South to North, I found my old trustworthy ATM, right where I left it. D’OH! *palmforeheadslap*
I got to the JR East ticket office with 6 minutes to spare (they close at 1900). Got my pass and my tickets. Even with all the delays and getting in early and losing the time I gained hunting for that bloody ATM, guess what? I still made my schedule! And JR being JR, all the trains arrived and departed on time.
Here’s how the schedule went:
NRT to Tokyo Station via N’Ex.
Tokyo to Utsunomiya via MAX Shinkansen
Utsunomiya to Nikko via JR Nikko Line.
Then, when I arrived at 2238 (on da nose, btw), it was raining Singapore style. That means, hot steamy heavy rain. Real rain.
I forgot, it’s August, ain’t it? Thought rainy season was done….
I had one night at the Narusawa Lodge booked.

This is OBVIOUSLY after the rain passed the next morning
Wada-San, one of the owners, came out to fetch me in her Mini Cooper in the driving rain. That was fortunate because Nikko shuts down after 1800 or so.

At that moment, the most comfortable room in the universe…
Tomorrow: Nikko.

I’m flying on SQ11 right now, somewhere over the Pacific. And liveblogging!
Seems that there’s Wi-Fi on this flight. And the deal’s not too bad either.
Check out the airlines that offer this progressive high tech service. Notice the conspicious lack of US carriers? It’s probably a good thing. If UA had this service, they’d probably restrict it to 1st/Bzness and charge three times as much.
Lunch just came out. Here’s what was for lunch:

Sauteed hanger steak with onions in mustard sauce, roasted veggies & gratinated potato
Cheese & crackers
Marinated Seafood Salad
Ice Cream (famous SQ Haagen-Daz cup)

Yes those are all my beverages. I believe in a liquid diet…
Not bad! You could either have this or the Japanese dish (since this is a flight bound for Tokyo Narita) which was wakadori sansho yaki. Will probably do the Japanese dinner.
More to come!