Life, the universe, coffee and travel
Just when you think you have seen the grossest things edible imaginable, Japan somehow manages to level up again.
You are looking at Rotten Fish heads in drinking water bottles. I shit you not….
It’s actually take away Dashi, a main ingredient in Miso soup. Just remember this image next time you chow down on a bowl of Miso….
And just incase tourists some how still manage to mistake this as a drink, the vending machine has this warning.
Japan, we need to talk….
This was my coffee this morning. Coffee in a disposable cup, on a disposable tray, in a disposable bag. My coffee this morning cost the planet 3 dolphins and a tree. We won’t even get started about whales…
I think the packaging was in my hand for less than 2 minutes as I walked from one platform to the next with coffee in hand. Most people are travelling north, so the only food places open before 7 (or in some places 8:30) are on the north bound platform.
Coffee here is more expensive than wine. For good coffee I’ve been paying ¥500+ for good coffee and even ¥480 for crap ones. A glass of wine has averaged ¥400-500. And that’s for a small coffee at the good places.
The other weird thing here is when you ask for coffee you are then asked if you want hot or cold coffee.
It would seem I’m not the only one to wonder why coffee here is so expensive
Now I’m partially caffeinated and waiting for the train south to Hiroshima
After the delicious coffee and pancakes for breakfast we cruised through the Nishiki Market (錦市場, Nishiki Ichiba) on our way to the Bamboo Forest. As much as I love Japan some of the seafood and other items on display really do turn my stomach and to be honest I was glad to out of there and on our way
Took the metro up towards Arashiyama where the bamboo forest is, after a slight delay as Dave couldn’t find his SUICA card and we had to find a station employee to help navigate the machine to buy another IC card.
Wandered around the bamboo forest, unfortunately there was quite a crowd of people but managed to get a few good shots. We went the back way to the path that most people wouldn’t do and found a great park with no one around. Amazing that a place can be so crowded and so deserted at the same time
Park with just us visiting. 200m away there are massive crowds
From here we took the JR train, metro and a bus over towards Kiyomizu-dera where you can get great shots of the Pagoda wandering the interesting streets. One thing I do hate about Kyoto is it’s transport. Having to take buses slows everything down. Tokyo is light years ahead with its amazing subway system.
From here we took another bus over to the start of the The Philosopher’s Path, a beautiful tree lined canal on the side of the city. We were there in the late afternoon (after 4) and we had it almost all to ourselves.
There are fish in the canal too
Dinner was a great little place right across from the hotel
Was supposed to be a quieter day today as the last two were big days with a 30km ride and a hike in the mountains. Got up late and seeked out a café recommended to Dave by Isabella (one of his employees).
The café was super small and hidden in the back of a car park off a small lane. No food, just coffee. That’s usually a good indication the coffee will be good as they have to rely on it. Coffee was good, ideally would have been a bit stronger but it was still the best in Kyoto (not as good as yesterday’s Hillbilly coffee though).
As we were there, waves of westerners came by for their daily fix. Still shocked at the cost of coffee in general here in Japan, this one was ¥510. Not a cheap habit here!
Since there was no food, we were looking for food after that and just around the corner was a branch of “A Happy Pancake” so we went there. I had a Tiramisu pancake, delicious.
We did part of the Nakasendo Trail today (8km of it). The Nakasendo way was one of the two main routes between Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo) during the Edo period. Nagasendo translates literally as “Central Mountain Route”.
The other route went along the coast and was called the Tokaido route. The Shinkansen line that runs through this part of Japan is the Takaido Shinkansen between Osaka and Tokyo.
Originally we were going to go to Himeji castle however I’ve done that before and we also did Odawara Castle the other day and thought we would do something really different instead and chose this walk.
The start of this section is just over 2 hours out of Kyoto and a good way back towards Tokyo (the first leg of this journey is to Nagoya – 140km). The JR pass and the high speed Shinkansen make doing insane things like this actually possible. The trip to Nagoya takes less than 50 minutes. From Nagoya it’s a express service to Nakatsugawa. Whilst not a Shinkansen it still picks up a decent pace. Would leave any train in Australia in its wake.
Once we arrived in Nakatsugawa after getting the Shinano express from Nagoya, we just missed the bus to Magome and had to wait 40 minutes for the next one. The bus timetable had changed since the guide we were following was written and instead of 15 minutes change over it was less than 5. We were not the only people to miss it.
The walk starts here (technically it starts in Kyoto, but we started it here)
At Magome we stocked up on sandwiches and snacks and just after that I discovered a real coffee place making coffees on par with what I would get back home in Sydney. They even had flat white on the menu. The coffee gods smiled in my general direction today. ¥600 for a coffee is the most expensive coffee I’ve had since my trip to Copenhagen last year although it was worth every yen after the crap I’ve been drinking for the last few days.
Hillbilly Coffee : worth the stop
This guy knows how to make coffee.
The coffee
The first section of the the walk (2.2km) was all uphill, initially through the village then farmland, bamboo forest, rain forest and pine forest. The scenery alternates between those 4 things the entire walk. It’s well marked and follows / crosses the road at many points so it would be near impossible to get lost. Phone and internet reception works along the entire 8km and there are rest stops and toilets dotted along the way. Take water though as no guarantee the shops along the track are open. I took 1.5 litres and used it all.
There are bear bells along the way. Not sure if this scares bears away or just indicates to them an hors d’oeuvre is approaching. As they say, you don’t need to be able to outrun a bear, just be able to outrun the person you are with. So if we encountered a bear I was it’s lunch……
There is a little bamboo forest along the way
The 2.2 km mark is magical as it’s the highest point and from there it’s almost an entire downhill walk. I bought a snow cone at the shop here which was delicious after walking 2.2km uphill in the heat.
Pass through some small little villages
though some pine forest
Through some rain forest
Through some farmland
On some stunning stone paths
Just a few water features
more stunning forest.
A rest stop along the way
We got to Tsumago and just missed the bus to the next train station (bit of a theme with buses today). It was over an hour to wait for the next bus or less than 50 minutes to walk the 4.5km to the station, so we chose to walk. Some great scenery along that part of the journey too and not too much uphill.
If you are prone to getting insect bites, take some repellant as I did see a few mozzies in the wetter sections of the walk.
Could you do this walk with small children ? Yes. We met a family of 5 on the bus to Magome and saw them again at the end of the walk. They carried their 2 year old part of the way, but they managed the walk.
Could you do it in reverse? Yes. We passed people going the other way, although I think you would want to be insane. In reverse it’s a 5.5km hike uphill.
Instructions to get to this walks and back to Kyoto :
I was surprised at how nice the train to Nakatsugawa was. Here I am expecting a standard local metro type train and it’s a beautiful long distance fast train with reclining seats just like the Shinkansen. Don’t let the thought of 2 hours travel put you off from doing this trip.
On the way back :-
Some pics of the walk from Tsumago to Nagiso
There were roadworks a long one section. One of the workers guided us through to ensure we didn’t hurt ourselves !
Map of the actual walk (I forgot to hit record in Strava for the first few hundred metres. I was distracted by the beauty of it all)
Well deserved bottle of wine at the end of the day
This is the train from Kyoto
This is the train from Nagoya
The train is quite nice and fast
The bus timetable to Magome. Note it goes from bus stop 3.
The bus timetable from Tsumago to Nagiso.
It's all about the coffee 