I suppose I have always wanted to live in Japan. Even if it was just for short while. I’m a history fan boy. I have lived in Australia all my life. I longed for a country with more history than my own. I had done a little martial arts, enough Kobudo to know the difference.
This adventure really started in Jan 2007. My better half Sammi wanted to take on overseas holiday. Without hesitation, I suggested Japan. As it happened, she also had wanted to see Japan. I knew if I could get her to Japan, she would fall in love. We planned the trip. I got time off work, before I knew it November came around and we were sat in the airport. I’m sure some of you have been there … ready to go, knowing something you have wanted for sooo long is just about to come to pass. The big planes and the airport blew our son gryffin, 22 months old, away. We come from a small rural town in South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula. 3500 people and growing. The biggest city he had seen was Adelaide. That has a population of around 1,000,000.
18 hours later, we arrived in Japan. We had only booked rooms a week ahead of ourselves. We were improvising, deciding where we go at; it turns out almost fatally, the last minute.
I had booked a couple of days in Kansai Nikko airport hotel. Swish. However, about half an hour into arrival, I got itchy feet. I was not tired, but hyped up. The baby wasn’t asleep, he had slept on the plane a fair bit. So we took off. Got our rail passes sorted and took a train to Osaka. Wow. We just took a walk across the road, to a department store. Went up to a toy section, for gryffin. Hehe, yeah… for gryffin.
Nothing too different there. Went to the basement food section and had some lunch. Got lost getting back upstairs. Got back on track and went back to the hotel. We did Dotonbori Street without video camera, and really, I was only looking for a way to find a charging unit for my phone. Mine had died day one. Nice. My phone was a pda I used for finding my way. Had a basic Japanese dictionary. I also used it for booking hotels over the internet that was vital. We were staying at ryokan.
We walked 5km. Just to be told I couldn’t get a cable. At least when I could piece together enough Japanese and gaijin sign language (you know what I mean!) gestures and pointing with random Japanese words you hope will convey your thoughts. It’s stupid really, but the Japanese are so patient with you, at least in our experience. I found an adaptor to do what I needed with a usb cable and I was back on track.
We stayed at Kameya Ryokan. Right near Osaka aquarium. Oh MY god! That is the most amazing thing I have seen. I’ve done snorkelling and been a beach bum in my youth. What Aussie hasn’t really, when they could? Nevertheless, I have never experienced anything like it. Gryffin was hard to contain. He is a ball of explosive energy, and was just becoming independent in terms of walking and asserting himself. He wanted to walk everywhere. And then he would run. So we saw the whole place in half the time you normally would. Kids running pace. But the fish we saw were amazing and dolphins, beaver and otters. Of course their main attraction, which I had no idea about until arriving, a whale shark. They cruise off Western Australia but I have never been there. It was big and I know they get much bigger. Awesome to see. Gryffin also managed to charm everyone he met. They all wanted to talk to him, interact. Australians are sometimes a bit afraid to talk to kids. Especially a stranger’s kids. The Japanese however, LOVE kids. The entire time we were in Japan, gryffin never wanted for attention. He worked out how to play the ladies! From Osaka to Narita he was sucking them in. In Kyoto a group of women stopped him at the imperial palace parkland. They were all traditionally clad in kimono. Awesome. They commented how he looked like a doll, and all had a cuddle. He would yell out “hello!!!” and the ladies would come running to meet him. Also men in Japan would be happy to talk to him, get down to his level and really listen to him. He was so happy.
November is a magical time to go to Japan. The trees have turned to amber and red. Ginko blasts its colourful hues in amongst the frey. For an artist or photographer it’s a paradise.
In essence we spent four weeks, travelling and searching for stuff we hadn’t planned to see. Like the temple we stumbled across in Oita. That’s over near Fukuoka. We were trying to find Usuki stone Buddha’s. Got lost … noticing a recurring theme? Thanks to the eventual Kami of navi! However, I digress. The road we were following which said Usuki in English lead us to a road that ended at a t junction that had no signs. I went one way nothing… turned around went back the other, ended up back at the start of the road to the dead end T junction. So we pulled over. Turns out, there’s a temple. Right there.
We walked up the steps in dead silence. There was no wind, no car sound, nothing. As we approached the purification fountain suddenly burst water out of an automated system. It scared the heck out of me! Hehe. After purification we walked up the steps further. It was empty no one was there. No monks, no visitors. Just myself, Samantha and Gryffin. They had this marble statue of a horse in fight. Its eyes alive. I gotta say, they don’t make statues like that in Australia. We have European kings, some scientists, even our Anzac iconography… nothing like that. We were new to temples, it was technically our first. Sam was taking photos, I was staring at this horse statue for ages. I suddenly heard Sam’s camera like a loud click in the background and knew we had overstayed our welcome. Almost like a warning the wind picked up out of nowhere and we left quietly and quickly.
Then Kyoto, capital of culture, I am ashamed to say we shopped. We had been on the go for 2 weeks and just wanted to veg out for a bit. Let gryffin get a little settled and not got too far. I mean we still walked the imperial palace gardens, but Kyoto has soo many shops too that no one talks about. Heh. Sometimes its yay capitalism. … sometimes.
Tokyo stayed in Shinjuku. Let me lay some figures on you. Moonta, where I live 3500. Adelaide, capital of SA, 1,000,000. Australia, at that time. 20,000,000. Tokyo 20,000,000 in a city not much bigger than adelaide in real spread terms. I can’t remember but I think Adelaide is like 6th most spread out city. No super apartment blocks here! All the Australians I could list from census would only fill Tokyo.
Disneyland… meh. Our kid was too young to enjoy it fully. Too small for rides. Too big to be in his pusher.
Went for a drive for fun. Had navi. Sweet, crossed the rainbow bridge. Got stuck in traffic. Awesome. Katori Shinto shrine, Narita san, and surrounding gardens. And then all too quickly, it was over. We left at 7 am, and 24 hours later were back in Adelaide.
So there you are. 4 weeks in 2 pages. There were other things we did, too much to condense here. I could show you the 16 GB of video I have. I could have showed you more, but Sam’s camera got lost coming back from Japan. She accidentally left it on the plane. In the seat pouch. Maybe the Kami were mad at her for taking too many photos at that temple. That’s the conclusion we came to. We went back for it less than an hour after disembarking. It was gone. Luckily we had a four hour wait in changi anyway. So I sat with an overtired gryffin going mental until he passed out. The camera was long gone. Not reported. It’s a bit weird in a world so obsessed with airport security that an object that could hide a risk to a plane by being left behind, isn’t recorded somewhere. Good thing it wasn’t something dangerous.
So we came home and began trying to live life without Japan. As it turns out, not everyone can fathom that idea. We decided we had to go back. Somehow, someway. And then we hatched our plan.
