Osaka

Lots of people seem unimpressed with Osaka, and some even recommended skipping it. But we had a grreat time, our hotel was perfectly situated on Dotombori which is like the Times Square of Osaka. Lights and billboards as far as the eye can see, and lots of crazy stuff. Our hotel had gian heads out the front and the local dish is Octopus Balls which are literally served everywhere.

We finally achieved the challenge of ordering some noodles from a vending machine (which are then delivered out of a kitchen, not the machine), it was possibly the best $6 lunch I`ve ever had, which we followed up with some deep fried things on sticks for dinner for only $12. Which led me to believe that Osaka was cheap, until I discovered $7 coffee the next day....

The acquarium in Osaka is excellent and has a small whale shark which was pretty exciting to see. There were also apparently sun fish, but they weren`t to be seen by us- which Adam was pretty upset about.

We also stumbled upon a new rockclimbing wall up the side of a high rise building - it seemed to be quite the attraction with the whole street beingblocked off and quite the party going on. No idea if they always climb the building or if it was a special event.

Hiroshima

Hiroshima usually brings up thoughts of one thing, and there is a lot of that thing around hiroshima. Scores of school groups surrounded the peace park and Dome it seemed like it was their version of a year 6 trip to Canberra. Many of them also had a workbook requiring speaking some English to foreigners, needless to say we had a lot of superficial conversations with 8 year olds.

The childrens area of the park was quite moving. People make scores of paper cranes to remember a girl who died of leukaemia who thought that if she could make 1000 cranes then she wouldn`t die - unfotunately she passed away before finishing them. But now school classes make a 1000 cranes and bring them to the memorial and sing a little song to remember all the kids who died in the bomb and the after effects.

But the town is pretty great, very easy to navigate, pretty good food, vibant nightlife. We even tracked down some fantastic Japanese\Spanish tapas which were pretty excting.

Kuashiki

I chose Kurashiki over Okayama as our next stop as there was an enticing article on it in the web somewhere which made it sound like a quiet quaint stop over after Kyoto. So off to another Ryokan experience we went. A Ryokan is a traditional inn with shared baths, full meals included and usually futons on the floor. They often also have pillows made of buckwheat which is like little plastic macaroni shapes - occasionally comfortable, but definitely something to get used to.

The old town was incedibly cute and had some eager tourism operators who seemed excited to have non-domestic travellers around. There was a canal and lots of cute shops and an art gallery with Monet`s and Cezanne`s. But overall a very quiet, but atmospheric place to spend a night.

Relaxing in Kyoto

Next we took the 'Thunderbird' train to Kyoto. We had organised 5 nights here in an apartment on a hill in Gion. And we planned on taking a very leisurely pace around the town, which was as well as half of Japan seemed to be in Kyoto for the weekend and streets and temples and transport was all ridiculously packed, even the simplest noodle places had lines to get in for lunch.

We saw a few temples, cycled the Philosophers path

and maybe even a few Geisha (or just women dressed up as them). We also stumbled upon a wedding at a shrine with a fairly frightened looking bride.

We also had a few culinary adventures in our neighbourhood, including an excellent all you can eat shabu shabu and a cute Okonomiaki (pancake noodle thing) bar with 3 tables. We've also been eating a lot of convenience store ice cream as it's the first time the temperature has been over 20 degrees. Hope it stays that way.

Takayama -home of hida beef

Takayama got a big wrap in the guidebook and I'm not surprised. It was a little touristy, but the streets and canals were gorgeous and traditional shops and artisans were a great way to spend a rainy couple of days. There were Japanese tourists everywhere for golden week and even our little Ryokan (guesthouse) seemed filled with tour groups.

Our days spent wandering morning markets and attempting to find a good coffee ( nil for three) were punctuated by evening meals of beef that won the meat Olympics ( so said the sign). It was pretty fantastic. We ventured to a French place that did a great deal to avoid any Japanese weirdness which is just what I needed in my food at that point. The second night we found a rockabilly American Hamburger place which also didn't have a hint of umami or unidentifiable pickles or rice anywhere.

Surprising Nagoya

We flew from freezing Sapporo to the southern and presumably warmer Nagoya. I didn't have any expectations for Nagoya, its meant to be an industrial town and the home of Toyota. But it was surprisingly interesting. We stumbled upon (read= saw in a calendar and then spent 45 minutes looking for ) a Belgian Beer festival and I was curious to see the Japanese interpretation. Pricey with a hint of weird entertainment was the result.

Freezing Sapporo

The guidebook said that Sapporo can get bitterly cold, and they were not wrong, it was about 6 and the comfort level -2. Conveniently, however much of Sapporo is connected by underground walkway. A fact we discovered after dinner, not before.

Sapporo is the place for crab and we sought it out with the crappy assistance of Google maps, which really has no idea what it's doing in Japan. It took us to a commercial building 2 blocks from the crab restaurant we were looking for. But crab we eventually found which was pleasingly served in our own private room.

Fast train to Hokkaido

I put some northern action in our itinerary to hopefully catch the cherry blossoms which we had missed by about 3 weeks in Tokyo. I can now say after 3 days in Hokkaido that we are about a week too early here. Very disappointing. But we have been to some cute little towns; Hakodate, where people said hello to us on the street, and Noriboribetsu where I had a great outdoor bath experience. We also stepped back to the 80's in at the sun palace lake toya. Which  seriously had a Nintendo 64.

Some sightseeng

We did finally focus on something other than food and went for a volunteer run walking tour of Asakusa. We saw a shrine and a temple - apparently different things. And checked out the sumida river.

 We also finally found the place where you order food off a screen and it arrives automatically on a conveyor belt thing....loads of fun.

More Tokyo food

After more culinary adventures we wandered down to Harajuku to try and track down a set menu place I had read about. It was down a side alley And we parked ourselves at the bar for a 9 course intensely Japanese meal. I think I like Japanese food quite a lot, but a lot of this food challenged me. Particularly a custard with bits of fish suspended in it, topped with a green pea jelly. More umami flavour than you could poke a stick at. We couldn't compete with the  the other Japanese customers who really can pout away some food and we bowed out a course early. The attached picture is course 5 which was a meal in itself.

Tokyo- mostly about the food

We arrived in Tokyo at stupid o'clock and spent a few painful hours wandering around in the rain waiting for our room to be ready. We are staying at the Granbell in Shibuya, which according to the guidebooks is teenager Mecca and the home of the famous Shibuya crossing. At 10.30 on a Monday morning it was positively prosaic.

We read about Good izakaya near the hotel. After walking around the block and consulting numerous maps we found it directly across the road and up a few doors. The Japanese quirk of numbering buildings in the order they were built rather than their location to each other provides a significant and ever present challenge. The izakaya, or neighbourhood bar, was loads of fun, lots of shouting and meat on a stick being cooked on a huge grill.

The recovery and relaxation

After getting off the mountain we had a relaxing evening at Poring Hot Springs which had mixed reviews from websites and the Lonely Planet. But it was lovely. Hot, not-stinky water, in a private room mended my aching limbs somewhat.

We were confused with the dress code with some fully dressed muslim women mixing with westerners in bikinis. But it all seemed to work.

This was followed by two nights outside Kota Kinabalu on the beach where I got massaged, reflexologied, ate fries, and generally had the holiday I'd wanted from Day 1.

4000 metres in the sky

The top of the mountain - well 2ks shy of the peak is just over 4000 metres above sea level. Probably the highest place I've ever been outside of an airplane. Altitude sickness can cause nausea, dizziness, sleeplessness, gas, slow circulation, breathlessness etc etc. Seems like a place I’d like to go.

I didn’t experience all of these, although dizziness was certainly there as was the lack of sleep at the hostel (but that may have been the noisy Koreans and Russians and freezing conditions). I politely declined to get up at 2am to see the sunrise at the peak and laid in bed, enjoying the feeling as warmth returned to my thighs and fingers.

The descent was to be slightly shorter, with us taking the main trail and we were hoping to be done by lunch. The first few steps were shaky and unsure as my legs rejected any more walking especially down slippery wooden planks spaced at uncomfortable intervals down a sheer granite slope. But I had a stern talking to myself and braced for the next four hours of knee slaughtering angles and steps.

I did make it down for lunch and ended up almost running the last 2ks – I was ever so happy to get off that f-ing mountain.

The, erm, Mountain

My happiness at driving 5 hours in the opposite direction to sealevel was short lived. We arrived at the town around Mt Kinabalu to a lack of humidity and the first comfortable weather of the trip. We packed day packs for the 400th time for our couple of days on the mountain and chatted endlessly about what was needed for walking for ages and altitude (apparently gas and ladies problems are two things not mentioned in the guidebooks about the affects of altitude.

Our night at the base camp was lullingly comfortable; wide bunks, warm showers, and endless cups of tea. All that was missing was the sauna and fresh Milk (Borneo is a big fan of creamer).

We had a leisurely start to the first day at 9 am and had 8ks to tackle. Piece of cake I thought, I could run that in 40mins. But alas it was not terrain for moving quickly, and my concerns about how my body would react to altitude made me slower than usual. The first 5 ks were pleasant, we chatted and walked and joked with our mountain guides we even stopped each k for a snack and loo break. The trail was exceedingly well marked; even though we had taken the less popular Mesilau trail (and extra 2ks).

At the 5k point it all started to go horribly wrong and I debated going back, crying or just sitting down and waiting to be rescued. First the rain started; we were in the middle of a rather large mountain which turns all paths into waterfalls – my shoes held up for about an hour and then became heavy bathtubs on my feet. A little after that it started getting dark and I sped up, leaving my walking buddies and mountain guides behind in the hope of a warm bed and the end of the trail. But it seemed to go on for forever as it got darker and darker and rained in monsoon like fashion I repeatedly asked myself what the hell was I doing. About 500 metres from the top I started getting dizzy and I realised I couldn’t really see where I was putting my feet. It was the longest 500 metres in the history of 500 metres. And I was only saved by a porter’s Motorola phone light after stacking it in a puddle (don’t worry I was already soaked through).

10 hours after starting the walk I arrived at Laban Rata and proceeded to kiss the ground through tears of joy.