Before I delve into a retrospective look at our time in Japan, it’s worth noting that whilst we were there the nation itself had been violently shaken by an 9.0 earthquake, it’s villages to the North washed away in a sweeping and merciless tsunami (taking 16,000+ lives), the Shinmoedake volcano decided it would be the ideal time to erupt, oh and then the Fukushima Nuclear Powerplant went into partial meltdown, leaking radiation into the capital Tokyo – which by then had descended into a city rife with food shortages, countless aftershocks, residents fleeing and constant power blackouts.
And there Dan, Jesse and I were – right in the midst of it all, utter strangers in a land becoming perilous with each passing minute.
It’s for those blameless and tragic events that we had to cut the tour short. I got to spend 4 days there (due to my doctor preventing my from flying due to an ear infection), Dan and Jesse 6. The plan was 13. But when your Prime Minster and Foreign Minister issue a severe travel alert strongly advising all Australian’s to exit the country immediately – you don’t have much option.
The last thing Japan needs right now, is more mouths the feed, more people using power and more tourists needing attention and guidance.
With all that in the mind, I personally couldn’t think of a better title for the whole period than the “W.T.F. Japan Tour” because literally, you couldn’t believe what was happening at times.
We tried to stay light-hearted about it, saying that all that needed to happen now to complete the cycle was Godzilla to suddenly rise up and attack spewing fiery monster flames everywhere. We’d even had the discussion about potentially dying and came to the conclusion that if it happens, it happens.
It reached the point where we stopped watching the TV – because every station was tolling the bell for the onset of Armageddon. We were supposed to be on holiday after all.
Thankfully we’re all back home in Sydney safe thanks to the Australian Government and Jetstar and I’m pleased to report that so far none of us are glowing or have grown a second head – so that’s a huge positive.
But let me tell you, there were SO many positives during our time there, the good eclipsed and trumped the bad. Constantly. Make no mistake, these were some of the darkest days Japan has experience in centuries, but they are handling them with calm, grace, resolve and above all dignity.
What is abundantly clear is that Japan really has made a very dear and new friend in all 3 of us. And that’s what I’m going to focus on in this blog – because with all the news reports of the impending end of the world, it would be nice to actually have a sense of perspective and balance.
If I tried to describe the entire trip in one blog, you would literally be sitting here reading this for days on end – so I’m going to split the days into various posts, to make it bite sized and more manageable. I know in this day and age, like me you only have enough time to spend 2 mins doing something before you’re off doing something else! I’m also only going to cover the days when I was there, I’m sure Jesse and Dan will post their thoughts on their trip in due course.
We’re also in the process of putting together a video, featuring all the experiences, sights and sounds we recorded during the tour – a nice summary of the entire trip as it were, so I’ll be posting that in a few days time.
So with 4 days up our sleeves, what did we get up to?
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First Night: Sunday Night 13th March
After travelling for the best part of 18hrs from Sydney to Cairns, Cairns to Osaka and amid various delays, I made it to Japan late at night. Greeting me at the airport station were Dan & Jesse, gleefully holding up a sign which read “WAIN TRAIN” just like those chauffeurs who have the dubious task of collecting strangers from international flights.
It was a nice touch and provided a little bit of light relief, from what had been up until that point quite a tedious day of airport lounges, passport control, immigration, customs, 80’s styled carpets and fluro lighting.
Having spent 2 nights in Osaka previously, the guys had a found a local bar right next to our hotel, amusingly enough called ‘Skippy’s’ although there was no kangaroo paraphernalia to be seen. Earlier that day, Jesse & Dan had made the trip (literally a 2 min walk from the hotel) to visit Osaka Castle (covered in my preview blog) and both were impressed by its rich heritage and imposing presence.
After a few more beers and with jetlag kicking in, we quickly went to Family Mart, which essentially is like the 7/11 of Japan – except way cheaper. They have all sorts of things in there, from sandwiches to baked breads, through to pantyhose porn and alcohol. Yep, you read that correctly, you can by alcohol from the convenience store! We stumbled across a few hilarious items, like ‘Watering Kissmint Breath Shower’ chewing gum and even cheese flavoured ice cream.
In the 48 hrs he’d been there, Jesse was declaring (to pretty much anyone who would listen) that “Family Mart sandwiches are the best sandwiches you’ll ever eat.” So of course I had to try one. Props to him, they weren’t bad and they get bonus points for cutting the crusts off, but the best sandwich EVER? Have to disagree with him there haha.
Once we finished munching away on various late night snacks, we retired back to the hotel – a decent enough apartment with three bedrooms, views of Osaka and a rather interesting sit down shower / bath combination – where bizarrely you actually sat down in the bath and then used the shower house bolted into the side of it to wash yourself. It certainly wouldn’t be the first unusual experience in a bathroom in Japan that’s for sure!
After stealing some toothpaste (a trend I would continue during the entire trip) and watching the unfolding crisis on Japanese TV and via the hotel Wi-Fi (all our friends Facebook & Twitter were in hysterics), we crashed out in our respective rooms at 3am. Alarm’s were set for 9am, with the trip to Iga Ueno (home of the infamous ninja) set to commence in a mere 6 hours.
In surreal times, the holiday had begun.
p.s. View photos from the W.T.F. Japan Tour
