Dave Riley » japan

Hotel Spa and Ueda old town

Dave Riley — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:48:42 +0000

First let me just say "Don't drink and drive!" no shock horror here, just a plain message in a fun style.

The hotel

Waiting to goto the spa

The kids are impatient

Austin escapes!

We went to a hotel spa in Komoro, it was much posher than the public spa but a lot smaller. Granda managed not to get lost or lose his clothes this time! For obvious reasons I didn’t take any photos there as we’re naked again Afterwards we had lunch which was a Chinese banquet – very nice i especially liked the noodles. Not sure why I didn’t take photos of that, maybe just focusing on the food Can’t be taking photos all the time.

This is ueda old town, it's much more cheerful that Komoro old town with lots of small craft shops.

Lovely old shops

Another Sake shop, this one has been going 300 years!

This is a tea room

it's very small inside, just room for one

These owls are a local symbol, we see them everywhere

dolls and sake, theres a pattern beginning to emerge

more cute owls

This shop seems to specialise in old boxes and pieces of wood - how do they survive?

They call it a town, but it's really just one street, still looks lovely

Another owl, I told you they were everywhere

Trees: on the roof!

A wood carving workshop

bears?

Mainly carved blocks and stamps and cards, the bears outside were misleading

Small shrine

Water feature

Strange art

More strange art

this looks like a chinese terracotta warrior

traditional noodle shop

Granda takes a well earned rest

another water feature, this one made the most beautiful sound

the river goes straight thru ueda old town

Cotton plants

Christian artifacts embeded in blocks of rock! No idea what it means.

anyone know why they are embeded into rock?

The house that Shigeo built

Dave Riley — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:14:31 +0000

The house we stayed at Rie’s parents house was designed and built by Shigeo Saito, Rie’s Father. It’s got 2 main floors and a basement/workshop. There is a bedroom in the attic too so that is really 4 floors.

The house

Nice quiet street

The house is located on a mountain and is accessible via a long windy road, must be interesting in the snow.

Granda just reminded me it’s 700 metres above sea level about 6 hairpin bends to get up there.

Saito house east side

us on the balcony - click for bigger image

us on the balcony again (click for bigger view)

Local farms

Austin on the move

Austin testing out the quietness of the local roads

Live long and prosper

A beautiful fireplace and traditional flooring

An open fire, lovely!

long chimney

The main living room

The opposite view facing the kitchen

view from kitchen bar area

Main room balcony joins the 2 sides of the house together

Lovely girl in lovely house

The style is really nice with exposed wood everywhere, the coreof the house is concrete and the wood is built on top of that, it’s a very sturdy structure, and warm and cosy.

omboo - piggy back

These lanterns were made by Shigeo

Beautiful designs

A tree

Leaves

The large living room light

The other side of the light

The large living room light

Living room

This one is by the main door

Hanna the dog doesn't realise she has a pink feather stuck to her nose.

First floor balcony has a lovely view

Me, when I was an 18th century Japanese rice farmer, life was tough in those days!

Family values were important in those days

Elizabeth when she was a 18th century Japanese rice farmer!

Happy days.

Giant Wasp museum pt2

Dave Riley — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:20:59 +0000

The leaflet that sparked the whole adventure, (click for larger version) Actually it was also due to Rie's parents getting an infestation of Giant wasps a few months ago.

You can read about the attack-of-the-giant-wasps here

As it’s winter all the live wasps are asleep If you come in summer you can interact with the live wasps (whatever that means) That sounds like a different experience altogether. We did get a discount only 500yen instead of the 1000yen it would be in Summer.

A collection of wasps, the biggest 4cm+

A wasps nest

Us in front of a load of wasps nests

These wasps build their nests anywhere

See what I mean?

This one has the side cut away to reveal an internal structure with several "floors"

Austin was nervous of these nests, can't blame him really

They cultivate these nests by hanging these ornaments upside down and making a great place for the wasps to build their nests on

Let me tell you about the bears and the bees! Alternative version.

Not everyone finds this stuff interesting.

The wasp protection suit

Lots of these good luck cats

Not even Budda escapes.

This is the main wasp guy, he loves them you can tell.

Its the honeycomb middle that weighs so little

The nest has hit the fan now

This will take 4 photos to show

Can you guess what it is yet?

You must know by now

It's a bullet train nest

These ones are big

This ones a record breaker, goes over 2 floors

Leading to a whole new vast room of even more nests!

I'm only using about a 1/3 of the photos I took here as there are sooo many nests and so little time. (they are getting a bit samey to be honest)

Heres one of the volcano, a local obsession.

Not sure what this is about, I don't understand how they manipulate the wasps into doing these custom designs for them.

That is my favourite so far, if I was them I'd have this one out front.

A huge slab of a nest.

The nests seem to go on for miles.

This one just seems wrong somehow.

Dear me

This one has a hat on, I really hope there isn't a human under that.

not sure what these are

Not sure what to say

We are all wasps when it comes down to it.

And so it's time to go. We've learned a lot.

But still there are many questions unanswered

Giant Wasp museum pt1

Dave Riley — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:48:06 +0000

The giant wasp museum - Warning this is seriously weird!!!!

Nice wasp sculpture

A dinosaur made out of tyres... not a good start.

And another 2 tyre made dinosaurs!

Theres scarier things than vampires out tonight!

Welcome to the giant wasp museum

We went through the door and were welcomed by the lady that runs the place, we took off our shoes and put on the slippers provided and entered the world of the giant wasp… tune in tomorrow and find out the surprising truth!

Komoro old town

Dave Riley — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 07:27:00 +0000

We start the day with Setsubun, as it’s 3rd Feb. Setsubun is the festival to get rid of demons and therefore bring good luck. They have big celebrations at shrines and temples all around Japan in Kyoto they take have a big event

I play the part of a demon and the kids throw soya beans at me!

They have me cornered, this ritual scares the demons away and brings good luck

Kids seem more interested in eating them then throwing them, the mask come free with the soya beans/nuts, they are really tasty

Ok and so to Komoro…

We arrive at Komoro old town

A quick photo op for Brandon and Elizabeth

What a lovely toilet, I particularly like the male/female signs

I love these small bridges, they are everywhere

A wishing tree

a pond full of koi

The Komoro old town Shrine

a monument reminds me of the one in bedlington, Northumberland

Here is a picture of Market place, Bedlington, thanks to "Bedlington pictures" for the pic you might want to visit their blog at http://bedlingtondogs.blogspot.com/

The police station, doesn't look like it gets much action around here

A very quiet street

It’s a bit spooky, theres no one around but us, very unusual for England let alone Japan.

Very traditional architecture

The community hall, the kids head for a slide they spotted

These houses are a lot older than the rest of Komoro

Apart from us the place was diserted

I love the water feature with little bridges

Day 7- A Volcano erupts!

Dave Riley — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:31:05 +0000

The place we were staying at Tomi city is dominated byÂ mountains all around and the most impressive is the Asama volcano, it is covered with snow, very beautiful.

Asama Volcano before eruption (click for bigger image)

Then 2am on 2nd Feb the volcano erupted, #Bing bong bing# there is an anouncement system wired into the telephone system keeps the local people abreast of events such as earth quakes and volcanos. The girl announced (in Japanese of course) that the volcano had erupted but that it was within safety margins, although there was a 4km “no go” area imposed around Asama.

The newspaper covers the eruption

The last major eruption in 1783 devistated 500 sq km

A cloud of steam coming off Asama (as always click for a bigger image)

More steam...

local artists capture the Asama volcano

nicely captured

Yet more steam, should we be getting worried?

Naaah! Maybe not, lets go for a drive anyway.

The traffic lights have a count down so you know when its going to change - good idea! Boris?

5…

4…

3…

2…

ONE!

We took the opportunity to go and get our train tickets back to Tokyo, so we'll be ready to go on the last day.

These statues were a gift from China

Ok, I couldn't resist this one; a curry restaurant called "Poo"

A waterwheel in the centre of Ueda

Day6 â€“ Matsumoto Castle

Dave Riley — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:19:05 +0000

It was an exciting day, not only finally getting to see Matsumoto castle but experience driving there myself, a daunting prospect but it shouldn’t be too bad only 2 major road changes and it is sign posted most of the way.

The trusty Rav4 with it's permanent 4 wheel drive awaits the experience of my moutain driving, will it get back in one piece?

We printed out a Google map of the route and off we went.

On the road to Matsumoto

After leaving the minor roads, we came to the first major road sign posted to Matsumoto, the Google map said take route 152 then route 254 simple! But when we got to the cross roads it said Matsumoto Route 167! What do I do? We thought the 152 must be further along the road we were on so we went passed that turn off, several KM later it was obvious we weren’t on a main road to anywhere. So we went back to the cross roads and took te 167 anyway as that was the last mention of Matsumoto. Annoyingly when we got back to Internet access I found that it depends how much you zoom in to the map – cheers Google. Disappointingly confusing.

Beautiful views, keep eyes on the road...

narrow roads not much margin for error.

Nice scenery

Just before going into the tunnels through the mountains, one was several kms long.

We have arrived

first impressions - nice!

lovely moat, shame theres some building work going on

The red bridge is being repaired so we had to go the long way round to the main entry

A cute logo for the castle

walking around the castle

Would you consider attacking this castle?

What a beautiful castle

Halfway round, it's a big castle...

It is a very cold day

The easiest way to get a stranger to offer to take your photo - try an awkward self portrait.

It worked! Some friendly Belgian tourists took pity on our plight and offered to take a photo

Almost there, the water is frozen over on this side.

These trees require more discipline, you'll stay in there until you straighten up!

Granda decides to not to come into the castle a decision we thought was wrong at the time. But once we saw the stairs… That WAS a good idea.

south side of the moat a lot warmer, all the fish and the swans know where to find comfort.

Lets go!

At the ticket office more good news today there is a discount for foreigners nice.

Grown from seeds that have been in space! Looks like the ancient wig of Kajagoogoo (actually its be plant underneath the wig)

The inside gardens of the castle grounds

View from inside the gardens

We're listening to an announcement about the history of the castle, it's 400 years old!

Keeping Austin off the gardens was a challenge

The fish on the roof are often seen on castles in Japan.

See all the holes? rifles and canons would be on us by now.

5 floors, maybe Granda was right!

side entrance

We're not sure we want to go in

Yeah, come on, it looks like fun (in a museumy kind of way)

Here are some of the original roof parts

Inside 1st floor

Very steep scary stairs

The building is original but they have had to do repairs over the years with at least 2 major restorations.

Not big on furniture those Samurai

The original lucky fish from the roof

It's a smart looking fish, I'm sure Osaka castle had a similar design

Well kept Garden, it must look stunning in Summer

Rifles

More rifles

Cool samurai armour!

Some more rifles, theres a pattern here

Rocket bombs! whoa!

Wonder what the range was?

Small cannon, looks charming, wonder how many people it's killed.

The battles are documented by a mural

It's a camera stand-off! Rie won...

Phased-plasma rifle in the forty watt range? Just what you see pal!

More guns

Nicely lined up... you guessed it - Rifles

The rilfles you can take today, but you'll have to wait 14 days for the hand guns.

Many different styles of pistol, but where can you get bullets from?

You make them yourself!

Finally at the top!

Inside the roof

Granda looked after the pushchair and bags. As always click for bigger pic.

He must be freezing there.

Lets try that trick again!

Bingo! A free family photo courtesy of a nice Australian tourist. works everytime.

Matsumoto city

Lovely phone boxes

So the tour ends, back to the car.

The castle was this big.

Just time to check out Matsumoto Shrine

Entrance

The Shrine

Matsumoto Shrine

And so we bid farewell to Matsumoto, we managed to find our way back in the dark. Ready for the next adventure.

Day5- Suwa Lake

Dave Riley — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:50:56 +0000

We went to Suwa Lake by car, it’s hard drive so Shigeo took the wheel. It wasn’t long before we were in deep snow.

Cosy

The right kind of snow?

Short comfort break

Snow on the mountains on the way to Suwa Lake

A cold and surprised Brandon

Ski resort

Roads getting worse the further we go

This region has snow all year round, unlike London they are used to it and nothing stops except for the most dangerous of storms, we saw people putting chains on their tyres.

It's a shame there was no where to stop on this narrow road as the countryside was so beautiful lots of small rivers with rocks and ice, I couldn't do it justice taking photos from the car window, just a blur.

I heard that London was covered with snow at the same time.

Suddenly roads are clear, Japan is an amazing place 20 minutes drive and the landscape changes, we still have to return in the snow later tonight!

Follow the red nissan driven by Masahiro

We arrive at Suwa, not a snow flake in sight

We visited a Sake brewery (I forgot to photo the entrance (doh!)

Rie explains to Granda what the place is all about

The brewery has a wonderful dolls display for childrens (girls) day which is in March

These dolls will be very expensive, not sure how they enhance the Sake experience

I've got to admit it is a nice display, imagine keeping it clean

Why so serious?

Free samples anyone? Marvelous!

When in Rome...

You get to taste their entire range of Sake, fortunately that is only 7 bottles or so.

The range of flavours is immense, from almost like Vodka in strength to soft and floral to very sweet.

A traditional Soba noodle shop for lunch

Eating noodle soup with chop sticks is quite difficult

Granda is managing ok, this may take some time.

Granda and me had hot noodles, everyone else went for cold noodles

Suwa Lake, on a very rough day

Reflexology pavement!

Take your shoes off and do the course

Halfway through, why did I start this?

Need I say more?

Getting our feet wet - volcanic heated foot spa

Lovely and warm

The lake, shame it was such a windy day as the boat trips were shut.

These unusual boats were closed due to strong winds

Another Sake Brewery

This one brews the Sake on the premises and Rie asked if we could have a tour of the brewery, they said you have to book ahead. But they said ok as we have come from London.

So much Sake, so little time.

It's a very small brewery, just about a dozen or so of these tanks.

Shall I go up the ladders?

The guy was stirring the bubbling rice

There was a strong but pleasant smell of fermenting rice.

Rie's Father takes a look

The guy explains the complex process, in Japanese

Different tanks for different grades of sake.

Something special about this one.

This is a all wooden filtration system used only for the finest sake.

The wood gives it a completely different flavour.

And so the tours ends.

Day4 â€“ Japanese Spa

Dave Riley — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:12:46 +0000

It took a while to persuade me to goto a Public Spa as you have to go in naked and that just doesn’t seem a very British thing to do. I suppose the sight of the mountains and the thought of coming all this way and not doing something. Anyway it turned out not that bad no one payed any attention so that was ok. The men and women are separated so Brandon, me, Shigeo and Granda went through the blue curtain and Rie, Setsuko, Elizabeth and Austin went through the red curtain.

There were 2 main pools one indoors and one outdoors, a sauna and lots of shower and baths. I spent some time in the indoor pool (41 degrees C) before venturing outside to the outdoor pool (42 degrees C)Â It was great looking up at the Asama volcano in the hot water while being outside. What an experience!

Outside the public spa

Brandon and me had enough of the heat so we went and got changed, we left Granda in the main pool, I told him we were going for a beer, he said “ok” so we went back to the lounge area and chilled out a bit. BUT what we didn’t know was that Granda had put his clothes in a locker and placed the key in Brandon’s bag without telling us…

He thought we had gone to get beers to bring back to the pool, obviously that isn’t allowed. When he realised we weren’t coming back, he went back to the changing rooms and without a towel or a key was completely naked and concerned that his clothes were behind lock and key. To make things worse no one there could understand English so it was all getting very “carry on”, anyway Shigeo went back to the changing rooms and discovered Grandas situation, but as the communication barriers were up (remember Granda’s hearing aid and glasses were in the locker) things were getting difficult. We were imagining that Granda was having a great time and not wanting to come out.

beautiful view of Asama volcano

Anyway a bit later Shigeo decided to get our help so Granda was saved after 20 minutes. Luckily the place was warm and Granda saw the funny side. so that was ok.

inside the public spa

After using the spa there is free tea and you buy or bring your own food and beer, now that’s a good idea. The place was mainly full of older people and families, maybe not a trendy thing to do, but relaxing and pleased we went.

View from the Spa window, notice the lovely gardens that is where the outdoor baths are this is January!

Spa car park

Asama

a range of mountains surrounds tomi city, these photos don't do it justice I will try and stich a landscape together

mountains everywhere

landscape: 2 photos stiched together, sitll not as good as the real thing 7000 pixels across, click on the image to see the whole thing

landscape2: sitched another 2 photos together, I wanted to do 4 photos but missed the area next to the tree so will have to make do with this.

Day3 â€“ Nagano Temple

Dave Riley — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:04:58 +0000

Nagano is a long drive so we took the train from Tanaka station.

complicated ticket machine

The ticket machines in Japan are very hard for non Japanese readers to understand, and usually there is no English speaking help, Japan must do something about this if they want English speaking tourist trade. Click for larger picture.

Train maps are often almost entirely in Kanji

Here is some of the route in Romanji but not much, it really makes it difficult for an English speaker to travel through Japan.

Granda has a well earned rest at Tanaka station

Rie gets our tickets to Nagano

Tanaka Station

Confusing cigarette sign

So we have to hold our cigarettes at child’s face height?Â I don’t even smoke and the helicopter shows these people are at least 30 metres tall… What a country!

Nice idea - no mobiles, Mayor Boris?

Welcome to Nagano

Austin gets interested in pigeons

They don’t have child leashes inÂ Japan so you get a mixture of reactions to using one, some people just stare in shock but Rie has had many parents of toddlers ask where she got it from, mothercare in UK which is a long way from Japan. So there is a market for it.

I want that one!

on our way to the temple

a beautiful journey

Granda said it was a long way up the hill, and he wasn't wrong!

very lovely road

Temple entrance

lots of side buildings

such architecture

cute shops

the budda on the way- serious stuff

inner temple entrance

Wash you hands here, in the pure water

the temple

Spectacular

the guardians of the temple

Temple entrance

thats us

incense

The incence comes out contantly and it is believed that to wave it on your head or your body it will have a positive effect.Â Why not, worth a try?

lovely gardens

beautiful monument

No not a new right wing leader

The swastika was a symbol of peace and harmony centruries before the nazis stole it.

View from the Temple, no pictures of inside allowed

Big Bell

We heard it ring while we were there. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the temple it self as it is an active place of worship.

we're loving it!

What the! We're near Matsumoto! That is my companies name! Surely we must visit.

Austin enjoying a water fountain

lovely park near the temple

random statue

lovely clean park

tree surgeon at work

The place is so clean and well looked after.

a free zoo in the park, what a surprise

can't understand how this is free

monkeys

flamingos

penguins

more penguins

I like penguins

Beautiful frosty forrest

I love these little bridges.

Close up of the little bridge

Here is a pleasant pheasant