Tag: Tokyo

“THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – “TOKYO TO KAGOSHIMA, KOCHI, PORT KOBE & HOME”

Day 11 Kagoshima

Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyūshū, Kagoshima is the largest city in the Kagoshima prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the “Naples of the Eastern world” for its bay location (Aira Caldera), hot climate, and emblematic stratovolcano, Sakurajima. Kagoshima is constantly bombarded by ash from the eruptions of Sakurajima and is at risk of a major volcanic disaster. Sakurajima (‘Cherry Blossom Island’) is an active stratovolcano. A stratovolcano is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. The lava flows of the 1914 eruption connected it with the Ōsumi Peninsula. It is the most active volcano in Japan. Sakurajima is serviced by the Sakurajima Ferry which runs 24 hours per day 7 days per week.

There was not a lot about this port that thrilled us, but a volcano was another matter. We docked at a purpose-built cruise terminal, but as you can see from my photographs it was overcast. We did not book any excursions again deciding to explore for ourselves. So, we caught the shuttle to the city and made our way to the Sakurajima Ferry Terminal. As we did so we came upon a circus – well more of a small town in caravans and containers.

The ferry terminal was easily found and operated on the “you are going to have to return” basis so you only paid for a one-way ticket. As you can see from my photos below it is a large car ferry with 3 stories of passenger seating – Sakurajima is a tourist spot obviously. The ferry terminal at the other end was quite impressive and clearly well used. You can make out the volcano in the background and the steam venting from it.

Here is a gate not to the shops but to the Tsukiyomi Shrine. So where are the shops? The settlement according to our map was 4 streets wide and 5 streets deep and the fabled pottery shops were not to be found. Well, it is still winter so no tourist shops to be seen. We followed Yogan Nagisa trail, a concrete paved trail following the coastline of the island.

Look at the beach in the photos below – the island is so obviously volcanic. We stumbled across a local secret by following the trail – hot spas for tired feet. Kerry very quickly had her shoes off and stuck them into very warm volcanic water and as you will see from the pictures the volcano is still active, has 3 peaks and a major eruption is predicted in the next 30 years – watch the headlines. Apart from enjoying the sunshine and the bushy surroundings there was not a lot to do.

We found our way to the High School, and you will see from my photo the volcano dominates the island. All along the trail we were followed by the Black Kites we first saw in Port Keelung. I stopped to get a photo of the volcano. It was still shrouded in cloud, but we could see one of the peaks/calderas of the volcano.

We caught the ferry back to Kagoshima (the ferries are about 10 to 15 minutes apart). Most of the ports had a welcoming and farewelling ceremony and even though Kagoshima was not the biggest and best they were the most enthusiastic. One group followed us to the end of the dock.

Day 12 Kochi – Glendon’s birthday

My birthday started with this surprise awaiting me on my return from breakfast.

I was not feeling on top of the world but thought I was well enough to look around the dock. We could see some industrial buildings on a high plateau of earth likely made from reclaimed material from the harbour. So, we headed for the plateau via over 100 stairs from the road below the plateau and found another mini brewery – South Horizon Brewery. It was not open yet. They had two small delivery vans out front and in the loading dock which caught my eye and whilst I checked them out Kerry had attracted some interest from staff in the brewery, and they opened for the day. Coffee and cake for the first time on an excursion and we were joined by two other Aussies who sat with us (I think he was Kevin, but I cannot think of her name). They had done a lot of traveling also and we swapped tales for an hour or more all the time in the shadow of the ship so to speak. They had got out of bed a bit earlier than us and had walked around the plateau, so they headed for the ship whilst we continued our walk. Unfortunately, my unsettled stomach brought me back to the Brewery urgently and that’s when Kerry bought the beer so that I could remember the name. We then returned to the ship, and I rested for the remainder of the day. My chemo treatment strikes back in strange ways.

That night we dined with Barry and Sandi in the fine dining restaurant taking coffee on deck 10. Not as good as a roof top in Rome but pretty damn good just the same. We hatched a plan for tomorrow with the Rowlands to see Kobe.

Day 13 Port Kobe

Feeling much better, the 4 of us caught a cab to go to Kobe’s Rokko Cable Line a funicular railway that climbs Mount Rokko. It offers stunning views of the city and surrounding areas. Our Japanese is lousy, but I don’t know how to confuse funicular with herb garden. Our lack of Japanese worked in our favour, and we found ourselves at the first station of the Kobe Nunobiki Ropeway not the Rokko Cable Line. This elegant “walk-in-the-sky” ropeway offers a comfortable 10 – minute ride with panoramic views of all of the colours of the seasons while looking down upon Kobe as well as sweeping views of Kyoto and Osaka. The ride up on the ropeway took us through station 2 onto station 3 and the top of the gardens and it was beautiful and panoramic despite the overcast weather.

Upon arriving at the last station, I was surprised to see clearly Austrian / Swiss architecture. The flowers were amazing, and this led us to make our way through the gardens to station 2 but on the way, we spotted the flowerpot men, gothic garden chairs, the glasshouse and its café and verandah deck where Barry and Sandi discovered the foot baths –

ooh they liked it. And then just as we went up we had to come down.

Here are some more random photos – the Japanese version of an iced coffee, me at rest and us in the verandah cafe.

At station 2 we decided to take the ropeway to the first station down to the streets of Kobe. Oh O, we had a passenger with us, but he had enough and crawled away.

Kobe has an odd passion about sewerage covers throughout the city with different designs on each lid, so I photographed some as we made our way back to the ship. We also walked past the former US Embassy building.

That night we decided to visit the town at night starting with Chinatown (very odd in Japan) which was just across the road where the ship’s shuttle dropped us. We dined in a Chinese looking restaurant drinking Japanese beer, or was it?

Back to the ship and the next day was at sea as we prepared to disembark at the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal. I packed my camera in my suitcase, and we made our way to Osaka and then home to Brisbane – Tokyo Haneda Airport Terminal 1, Travel to Osaka

(Japan Airlines) Osaka Terminal 1 Travel to Brisbane (Jetstar).

A great welcome back to travel and cruising – Kerry has already found our next holiday and you can expect some further blogs from me. Until next time – May you have fair winds and following seas.

“THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – “ROME TO TOKYO”

TOKYO

Our Finnair flight was unremarkable which is a good rating – no problems were encountered. So my first picture is our plane. We allowed ourselves two days in Tokyo to ensure we arrived in time to catch our ship. I think we made good use of our time there and we only saw what was immediately around our hotel, Hotel Villa Fontaine Tokyo – Hamamatsucho and what we saw on a trip into the centre of Tokyo. Our arrival was marred by our cab driver not having a clue where our hotel was located. Unknowingly his GPS took us to the rear staff entrance to the hotel which confused him and us but fortunately some locals on the street showed us the lane way to the front of the hotel. The second photo is the front of the hotel, and the following pictures show how close we were to the 3 levels of railway rushing around us. We noticed that several businesses had their own shrine for staff and passersby, and the first one below was immediately across the road from the hotel and alongside the Japanese version of a café – a drink dispenser. Note they also dispense Kirin Beer.

We obtained a tourist map from our hotel. We were checking the location of the dock for our departure on our cruise and became worried that the instructions as to the location of the dock for boarding our ship were somewhat vague – “Yokohama Dep. 4.00 pm”. Believing the dock was nearby, we took a walk to the waterfront. There was a considerable amount of renewal happening/being constructed underneath rail overpasses and vehicle expressways and in between the enormous city towers around us along the path to the waterfront. The photos below show the way in which the Japanese used all space available.

We made it to the dock but there was no sign of any ship terminal. Tugs and ferries but no cruise ships. We continued our search passing through wharf industries harbour side units and canals but no cruise ship terminal. Push bikes were popular even with the public transport available. As we returned to our hotel we were surprised by the architecture of one building: a domed area under an office tower. It proved to be a shopping centre at the base of an office block, but it seemed to be “dead” with no people activity inside the building. It seemed to be a cross between a plant hot house and a shopping centre. Not sure how successful it has been.

On returning to the hotel, we decided we would call our travel consultant and get the complete street address and directions for the dock. A very helpful consultant gave us an address (we were rather suspicious that the address said nothing of a terminal or dock number), but we felt assured that the instructions for the taxi would get us to our ship. Our concerns eased we took a ride by train into the city.

Tokyo has a rail ring road making it easy to get to the centre of town. We were looking for Tokyo’s highest building to get to the roof top for a grand view of the city and beyond – as the tourist literature promised. Getting to where we wanted to go was trouble free. Finding our destination from the train station not so easy. Passage ways, footpaths and aerial walk ways had us confused but we got there in the end. We found that building but to get to the roof top was ticket only access and all tickets for today were sold out. So, we took in the sites from ground level. That’s it 1st picture left to right.

When walking to our station to catch the train we walked past an open garage containing go-carts. No idea what that was about and there was no signage in English to inform us. So we were very surprised when we encountered go – carts full of jubilant tourists came rolling past us in the centre of the city. I have provided a photo below then follows a photo of the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing. As well as street level pedestrians there are pedestrians aloft – yes 3 storeys above ground and connecting everything. It is hard to find anything old world Japanese, but we found it in a restaurant with shrines in its front yard – what must that land be worth!

We had a burger in Hungry Jacks (very Japanese) and decided to explore further passing over a canal with houseboats and a new stretch of pedestrian and bike pathway and gardens on our way back to the hotel. The following day – “sailing day” – Kerry had spotted a large garden space on our map within walking distance and we thought we had time to explore a bit more.

The pictures below start with a different form of shrine to the one across the road from our hotel – an upright tablet with two temple urns beside it – then surprisingly our first cherry blossom tree in full flower. The park seemed closed at every entrance, so we traveled to the walkway 3 levels above ground for the view of the park. More than a park it is a religious sanctuary set out in traditional Japanese style. As the park seemed closed, we went in the opposite direction towards the harbour. The pictures show you the grand scale of these walkways. We passed a high school and its sporting fields and ended up on the harbour boardwalk with ferry terminals spaced along it and ferries plying the harbour and trains passing by. The buildings around us towered above and I have taken some photos of some of the more impressive. I was even able to grab a picture of the look-a-like Eiffel tower – the last photo but its a long way off.

We turned around and went back to where we had come form. I cannot recall what made us walk to the opposite end of the walkway, but I am glad we did so as we found the entrance to the park – there is a fee to enter and that explains the closure of all the other entrances. The photos below show you around the gardens. We were now pressed for time so we did not get to every point but we saw the cherry blossom grove in full flower with a traditional bride walking through and an Australian lass enjoying the sunshine.

We made our way back to the hotel and collected our suitcases. The receptionist called the cab driver and handed to him our piece of paper with the address for the cruise terminal – we thought – but our concerns were well founded. The address was the HQ of Holland America lines in Tokyo and the cabbie had no English-speaking ability and was completely oblivious as to where the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal might be. We have not had the need for using our phone for translation so we were left to go to charades to tell the cabbie what to do. He wanted to put us and our luggage on the street, but we insisted that he find out where to go and to his credit he did that by questioning every parking centre and hotel security he could find and struck it lucky.

Meanwhile I was on the phone abusing (politely) the HAL staff to find out where the dock was. My efforts seemed to be languishing but then the cabbie turned a corner, and the vessel MS Noordam was at anchor at the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal. The cabbie thought that we would leave him alone if he dropped us off but we were still a kilometer from the ship so he endured found the road to the reception of the terminal gladly took my Yen 7,000 (should have been Yen 500 for a 15 minute trip but it was HAL fault for the misleading information – my complaint to HAL resulted in an apology and refund of the cab fare.)

Relieved we boarded the ship with a good story to remember this trip. However, we were soon to learn many other people had the same misfortune. We settled down and then we were shown to our stateroom, whilst we awaited our luggage there was some noisy bumping coming from the hall and I stuck my head out. The bloke in the adjoining cabin was bumping in with their luggage so I asked if he needed a hand, and an Aussie accent answered that he was right. This was Barry and his wife Sandi from Indooroopilly just arrived in their taxi from Yokohama – they had also been given a bum steer by HAL. From there and occasions where we shared a dinner table, we became acquainted and did quite a few things together. We still keep in touch with them – our next adventure was to be to Nudgee Beach but for reasons forgotten we ended up at Indooroopilly.

So the next and last leg of our adventure was about to commence. Read on as we relax on the high seas south of Japan to Taiwan and back again in my blog “THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – “TOKYO TO ABURATASU, PORT NARE AND PORT NAHA OKINAWA”.

“THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – NAPLES to ROME & Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport THEN TOKYO”

Back in Rome

We returned to Rome by train arriving in Terminii and crossed the road to Dream Station B&B for the night. Having been traveling all day we took in the air by visiting the remains of the Servian walls standing outside the Entrance/Exit from Terminii station. The Servian Wall is an ancient Roman defensive barrier constructed around the city of Rome in the early 4th century BC. The wall was up to 10 m (33 ft) in height in places, 3.6 m (12 ft) wide at its base, 11 km (6.8 mi) long, and is believed to have had 16 main gates, of which only one or two have survived. In the 3rd century AD it was superseded by the construction of the larger Aurelian Walls. The largest section is preserved outside the Terminii Station and includes a section in a McDonald’s dining area at the station. When writing this blog, and reviewing my photos, I found this photo “Porta Esquilina – this gate on the Esquiline is still visible, and incorporates the later arch of the emperor Gallienus.” I can recall Kerry, and I discovered this gate when we visited Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II when we were searching for her roof top restaurant for her birthday. A picture is below.

Our trip to the airport the next morning was trouble free as I recall it now. We had purchased a round the world ticket so we ended up flying via Helsinki on a Finnair Jet to get to Tokyo. The flight was trouble free and the fun was to begin with finding our hotel in Tokyo. Read on for my blog on “THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – “ROME TO TOKYO”.