Today was the real point of the whole trip. We wanted to do the Sani Pass before they tarred the road – which they are in the process of doing. As it turned out, they have only done phase 1 so far which was up to about a few hundred meters from the hotel. Phase 2 is in under construction and is basically from our hotel to the SA border post. As it was Sunday and in the Christmas holiday period, no construction is currently taking place and the road was very rutted and muddy. It tested our driving skills before we even got to the SA border post.
On the way up to the border post we did add another lifer – Gurney’s Sugarbird which we saw on a protea. The border post was quick and easy and then we were in our car again heading up the main part of the pass. The border post is at 1940 meters and the top of the Sani Pass is over 2700 meters. Straight past the border post it was evident that Low4 was going to be necessary. The road was very rocky and pretty steep. It was a really enjoyable drive up – not only because I enjoyed doing the drive but also because we were the last of the 3 cars and we could watch everyone else bumping up and down and seeing especially how Mr M’s car was adjusting to the terrain, using traction control, spitting out stones and wheel spinning.
On top of the challenging 4×4 drive up the Sani Pass (you can only do it in a 4×4 though remarkably we passed some taxis coming down from the Lesotho side) it was a very scenic drive up. We stopped a few times going up to take photos, admire the view and (of course) to do some birding. In the end S & I added 7 lifers today alone! That is probably the best day for adding lifers since we started birding (excluding the first few days when everything is a lifer). We added all but one of the specials for the Sani Pass and we are pretty sure we saw that one too (Bearded Vulture) but it was while we were driving and we can’t be 100% sure so I won’t claim it yet (hopefully we will get to see one before the end of the trip).
When we got to the top we did passport control for Lesotho (which again was a non-event) and then we headed to Sani Pass Chalets which houses the highest pub in Africa. After admiring the view a bit more and doing some birding, we went in and had an early lunch. It started raining shortly after that and we were thankful that the rain didn’t start while we were driving up the pass. It would have made it much more treacherous than it was already. By the time we finished eating and drinking, the mist was also rolling in and we were very thankful that we didn’t have mist when we came up either. That would have made it extremely difficult and stressful and we wouldn’t have been able to see the fantastic view either.
We had about 120 km to get to our lodge for the night (Oxbow Lodge) which is basically on the north of Lesotho. The speed limit in Lesotho is never more than 80 km/h and most of the time it is 60 km/h. It took us over 2 hours to get to the lodge especially as the roads are bend after bend and at some points pothole after pothole. You also have to be alert to the cars that just stop on the road and the occupants standing in the road.
We are the only people staying at Oxbow Lodge tonight. It is fairly basic with no electricity. They do (fortunately) have a generator that they turn on from 3pm-10pm and then again at 7am in the morning. They haven’t heard of the internet and so WiFi is clearly non-existent. I have a cellphone signal on my work phone so I am just posting this using that and then heading to bed. Sorry – no pics today because of the lack of signal but I will try tomorrow when we get to our next lodge.
P, S (for doing most of the driving in Lesotho today after the Sani Pass), H, C & K
Today was a long driving day. We left MZ at 7:30am after pumping up our tyres (we drop the tyre pressure for 4×4 routes and gravel) and refueling – which was a very slow process not because the pump was slow but more so the process of the operator. Filling up 2 cars simultaneously was beyond his ability or seemingly thought process. When I suggested it as an approach it slowed down things further. Fortunately K decided to test her window washing skills which when I sent a pic to her father he replied with “has she been photoshopped in?”
We had an 8 hour drive ahead of us as we left the Eastern Cape (and Karoo) and headed to Kwazulu-Natal. The route took us through small Eastern Cape towns of Cradock, Tarkastad, Queenstown, Cala, Elliot, Lady Frere, Maclear and then into KZN taking us through Mount Fletcher, Matatiele, Cedarville, Underberg and then finally to Himeville.
The road is interesting for a number of things. Firstly, the route went from drought stricken Karoo to lush KZN cattle farm land. The contrast was remarkable in one day. Secondly, you have to play dodge-em with goats, sheep & cattle. They just seem to be wandering all over the road. On one occasion I had to slow down from 100km/h to basically a stopped position otherwise we would have had a sheep attached to the front of the Beast. Mrs G told me they encountered a sheep lying down in the middle of the road. It took 8 hours of vigilant driving.
Thirdly, the towns are mini-traffic jams. We don’t know if it was simply because it was Saturday and end of month or always like this. But as we hit Lady Frere we had our first taste of it. Despite there only being one small section of the centre of town there was a traffic jam (even Google maps had it marked in red!). That is because it seems you can simply park or stop wherever you want, whenever you want. You wonder what is going on and just when you think it is time to depress the hooter (honk horn for the Americans reading the blog), someone would open a door and climb slowly out and then have a conversation with the driver and do that for a minute or so and then finally close the door and amble off. That wouldn’t necessarily mean that the car would drive off at that point – sometimes it would remain stationary for another few minutes and then suddenly pull off at a very slow rate. Take this and repeat through multiple towns and that was part of the driving experience today.
Fourthly, the speed limits and signposting were a non-stop amazement to me. At one point we hit the town and it never marked the speed limit down from 100 km/h but the sudden appearance of a speed hump made for a very quick slow down. No signpost of a speed hump to be seen at all. At one point, there were two speed humps a few meters apart and the 40 km/h sign and warning about the speed bump were between the two speed bumps! It was also not uncommon to have speed signposting of 60 then about 100 meters on, 80 then a further 100 meters on back to 60 again. That also repeated itself multiple times through the day.
We stopped for lunch at Maclear. The only option being KFC. It was a newly built one (or so it seemed). Fully electronic ordering and delivery process. Fully manually operated by people that clearly didn’t know they had an automated process. After you placed your order you would expect that the order would appear to those making them up (which I am sure it did) but you actually had to give your slip to the lady at the counter who then shouted out the order through the hatch instead. Unfortunately we lost 5 minutes as we didn’t understand this process thinking that the automated system was doing it’s job. We did all eventually get our food though at least.
We arrived at Himeville and more importantly our hotel which is the Premier Sani Pass (https://www.premierhotels.co.za/hotels/kwazulu-natal/sani-pass/) at around 4:40pm. The views from the rooms are incredible as they stretch over the Southern Drakensberg. It was heavily overcast (having rained a little on route) but just when H & Mrs M went out for a run, the heavens truly opened and it bucketed down. They came back relatively quickly though was still totally drenched. The picture above is the view from our balcony of our room.
The hotel is a resort with golf course, putt putt, indoor and outdoor swimming pool, tennis court, soccer pitch etc etc. Lots of things to do. It does make us want to come back at some point and just spend a few days relaxing here. We had the buffet dinner which was pretty impressive including oxtail, lamb chops, turkey, stir fry of your choice, make your own pizza and most importantly for me – pap & tomato sous (something I love but hardly ever eat it as it isn’t getting made at home). There were a lot of other things but I didn’t bother to waste my effort on salads and soup and the like. When we left after dinner they were doing after dinner bingo (by popular demand it seems!) and Mrs G kindly pointed out the full days activities which we had missed (see pic!). Everyone was really torn about staying for the bingo but the call of our beds won the contest.
Finally, but not unimportant, we added another lifer today while driving (how impressive is that) and the birding tally to 57.
Tomorrow is Sani Pass day and after driving for 8 hours today I want to get to bed now (H is already asleep as I type this).
Until tomorrow!
P, K (for washing the windows), H (for staying awake the whole 8 hour drive today – at one point all the other 3 were asleep), S & C
We were up early and heading out at 6:30am for a morning game drive. We decided to do a longer 4×4 route which turned out to be a lot easier than yesterday’s route. It was rocky in places but was not particularly difficult. We added a few birds for the trip and also added Eland. We did stop for morning coffee at a view point though they did warn you to alight at your own risk.
We were stopped at a waterhole – one of two that actually have water in it – when one of C’s school friends (incredibly they are also staying in the park) pulled up and asked whether we had seen the lion kill! We said no, they told us that a pride had killed a buffalo on the road and told us where to go. We headed off a top speed and sure enough found it. When we arrived none of the pride were eating and we saw a few lionesses and one male lion (and of course the dead buffalo). The females almost immediately headed off up the mountain side and the male was asleep in the shade. None of them eating the buffalo though.
We went back on two other occasions later in the day and while the male was still there, they were still not eating the buffalo. The staff at the camp say that all the cars are disturbing them and that is why they aren’t eating. We will go back tomorrow am to see what has happened over night. It was a great sighting though especially since a few people in our party had yet to see a lion in the wild.
We headed back to camp for breakfast. The chalets have DSTV and so I settled in to watch a masterful SA bowling performance against England, some slept and some went for a walk. Around lunchtime the G’s went to the other waterhole and we joined them shortly afterwards (we being me, S & K). We ticked off a number of new birds for the trip and we are now at 47 after the first 2 days.
Late afternoon we did another game drive and again passed the dam and this time added a lifer to our lists after seeing the African Black Duck. We completed a loop which took us up the ridge of the mountains and to about 2000 meters above sea level. The views over the valleys were amazing. A photo doesn’t really it justice.
Back to the camp for a braai. By the time we were ready to eat though it was pretty cold outside (it never got above 23 degrees C today) and so we all squeezed inside to eat dinner together instead. We really didn’t expect it to be this cold especially since yesterday was in the mid 30s.
Until tomorrow …
P, S, K (because they came out with me midday for a game drive), H & C
After an early breakfast at Matjiesfontein with my in-laws, we were on the road just after 8am heading toward Cradock and Mountain Zebra National Park. That is where we were meeting up with the rest of our group – the Ms and Gs. Unfortunately the Ws (family that joined the last two road trips) have left for the darker, wetter world of England.
The route from Matjiesfontein takes you to Beaufort West then to Aberdeen, Graaff Reinet and then on to Mountain Zebra NP. It was a 6 hour car journey. Traffic was still pretty light most of the way. We made a stop in Beaufort West to re-fuel and then a minor detour into Aberdeen so Helen could revisit the street and house where her Mom grew up and finally a stop in Graaff Reinet for lunch at Steers. We arrived at the gate of the national park at just before 3pm and the Ms pulled in behind us while we were doing the paperwork. They came from Knysna and so their timing was impeccable.
It was noticeable how dry the landscape is at the moment. The whole Karoo is in a severe drought and the whole landscape is very arid. It was also pretty warm at 36 degrees C when we arrived. We unpacked and had a afternoon rest. Some slept, some watched cricket (they have DSTV in the cottages). At 5pm we decided to head out on one of the 4×4 drives. There are 3 4×4 routes in the park – two of them are rated 3 in difficulty and the other is a 5 in difficulty. We picked one of the 3 in difficulty. As we were deflating our tyres slightly at the reception area, the G’s arrived (they had come all the way from Cape Town – an 9 hour drive). They said they would aim to catch up after they had checked in.
The road took us straight up the side of a mountain. A short way in I realised that I needed to engage 4x4Low range in order to get up the steep and rocky incline. Once I did that the Beast powered her way to the top without any issues. B’s Subaru also made it to the top without any issue. We did figure that given the rocky nature we should deflate the tyres a bit more and so S braved the lions & cheetahs (there are in the park) to do that for us. Due to the lack of water, the game is pretty sparse though we did see kudu, gemsbok, springbok, mountain zebra, wildebeest, mongoose, ground squirrel, red hartebeest, baboon, vervet monkey & black-backed jackal.
On the birding front, while I haven’t tallied the list yet for the trip, we did see a lifer today (Cape Long-billed lark) which now takes my tally to 439. We are hoping to add substantially to our list this trip as we are going places we have not gone before and there are birds you can only see in this area.
We got back just before the gates closed at 7pm, started the mandatory braai and we all ate together before heading off to bed.
We are off on another road trip with the key aim to get to Lesotho and do the Sani Pass. All the rest of the trip is just leading to and from the Sani Pass. That is the pinnacle of the trip and we are hoping it won’t disappoint.
We left this afternoon at 3:30pm for Matjiesfontein. My father-in-law has been preaching at Matjiesfontein over Christmas for the last 26 years (including today) and we have not as yet been here with them over Christmas but we thought this was an ideal opportunity to rectify that. Given it was Christmas day, the traffic was very light and we made it to Matjiesfontein in 2.5 hours.
As we arrived, the bus was departing for the trip around the town. S, K (S’s girlfriend) and C joined my father-in-law on the bus for the quick tour. H & I went to check in and then we unpacked the car. We are staying in the Old Museum Suite – it was originally actually a museum.
After we had unpacked we joined the in-laws on the porch of the hotel for the a pre-dinner drink and then headed in for dinner afterwards. They have a special Christmas dinner with 4 different meats (lamb roll, lamb roast, pork belly & turkey). After the main course the staff came in and sang a number of songs including ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’, ‘Silent Night’ and then ‘We will make you fishers of men’ to which all they invite all the people to join behind them as they move around the restaurant (I have the video as evidence!).
My father-in-law then does a quick speech (apparently a tradition now it seems – after 26 years I guess that is what happens!). He said today that after 26 years of being called the Rector of Matjiesfontein he thought it was time for a promotion and so if you agreed that you should raise your glass to him being called the Bishop of Matjiesfontein. He was duly elected/approved/toasted in as the Bishop. The main purpose of his speech though is to say they will pass around the hat as a donation for the staff and then he promptly takes the hat around himself. I am sure they get more that way as it is pretty hard to say no to him!
It was a lovely evening that capped off a lovely Christmas day. The only problem was that it was a first Christmas Day that I never saw my one son (the now married one) as we went to an earlier service than he attended at church today.
Until tomorrow …
P, H (though she slept for 2 hours of the 2.5 hour car journey today and so doesn’t really deserve 2nd spot but it’s Christmas and I’m in the giving mood), S, C & K
So here are my summary thoughts (in no particular order) about Japan:
They are very organised. Everything runs exactly on time. There are specific places to leave and board trains. The train stops at exactly the correct spot each time.
They are very polite and respectful. They form orderly queues for everything. I think they beat the British for their queuing ability. I am pretty sure we broke rules or laws but no one would ever say anything to you. They probably just thought ‘idiot foreigner’. Bowing is a thing you do regularly. When a train conductor leaves from one carriage to another, he/she turns and bows to the entire carriage. You walk past a cleaning lady in the hotel and she bows to you.
They are incredibly helpful. Even if they can’t speak English they go out of their way to try and help you and communicate to you. They clearly want you to be happy.
They are very neat and tidy. There is no litter around at all. Even though it is pretty hard to find a public bin (some days we carried our empty bottles around with us for hours before we found a bin), there is no public littering. They have trash days when they put out their trash and then even they cover it with netting so nothing blows away inadvertently.
While they might not be litterers, they must be the biggest consumers of plastic in the world. Given how careful everyone else is in the world about plastic, the Japanese seem to love plastic and they don’t seem to recycle most of it either. Everything comes wrapped in plastic and often two layers of plastic. We bought cheese for lunch the other day and the cheese was wrapped in three separate layers of plastic and the biscuits had a plastic outer cover as well as plastic inner cover. They burn their trash using an incinerator so not sure what they do with the melted plastic in the end.
Japanese are rule followers. They always stand a red pedestrian crossing even if there is not a car in sight. We sometimes crossed and then only would they follow. We might have created some lawbreakers!
Their rail system is fantastic. You can basically travel anywhere in the country on the train. If you have read the blog consistently you would know that we often took 6-8 trains a day at some points. In the entire time we were in Japan (just over 2 weeks) only 1 train ran late and then it was only 1 minute late and they made a public apology for it. If you visit Japan, get a Japan Rail Pass before you come. It is definitely worth the money.
For all their technology, they are really backwards in the use of technology especially for things like train travel. You have to have a physical ticket – see our Japan Rail Pass below which you have to show every time we entered and exited. Compare that to London where you can tap & go to get onto a tube or train, it really is surprisingly backwards. In addition, the more outside of the main cities you travel, the less widely credit cards are accepted. You must have cash in those places.
The Japanese love vending machines. There are ones all over the place. Yes I really do mean all over the place. You are never more than 100m from a vending machine. But they don’t take credit card (see point above). You can generally get about 20 different types of drinks from a vending machine and there usually are two next to each so generally 40 different drinks available.
Japanese seem to like their coffee cold and not hot. Even at Starbucks you get asked ‘hot or cold’ every time you order anything. The majority of people are having iced lattes or something similar. The vending machines also always have some form of iced coffee drink. Besides Starbucks, forget about getting a decent coffee though. They are actually the 5th highest coffee consuming country in the world but they prefer to use the “siphon and pour over” techniques for making coffee (drip coffee). Apparently they drink more coffee than tea now but as I said, I reckon most of that is some form of iced coffee.
Japanese love muzak. In the elevators, in the malls, in the hallways of the hotel, outside shops, inside shops, as you’re walking down a random street …muzak playing. Generally it is some classical piano (think Richard Clayderman for those who know him) or some 60s/70s/80s/90s US song. They love Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley etc. Nothing recent or modern out of the US – must be 20 years or more ago it seems.
Japanese love kitsch. You could clearly see it at Universal City. Branded merchandise does extremely well here. Hello Kitty is massive. You see it everywhere. Apparently there are over 15000 Hello Kitty branded merchandise. Disney characters are also very popular. The queues at the World Cup merchandising stands were ridiculously long. You clearly must have merchandise for every event you attend. At breakfast they had the restaurant decked out in a Halloween theme. Christmas adverts already up.
You don’t see overweight people in Japan. They only have 4% of the population classified as obese. They must be the sumo wrestlers only because I never saw any of them. It is probably because they (a) walk a lot (b) cycle a lot (see next point) (c) eat a lot of fish.
Other things you don’t see a lot in Japan are petrol (gas) stations and banks. Besides one bank that I saw in each of Tokyo and Kyoto, I don’t recall seeing a bank. ATMs are prolific but not banks. I also wondered where everyone fills up their cars because you hardly see petrol stations and when we did there were not a lot of people filling up either.
Cycling is clearly the first method of transport anyone considers. They have paid bicycle parking. Cyclists don’t use the road, they use the pedestrian walkways. Even though the roads have markings on them for cyclists, no one seems to ride on the road. Helmets are entirely unnecessary. Never saw anyone wearing a helmet in 2 weeks. Mothers cycle with their children in seats behind them (sometimes even two seats for the children). You would think that Japan would as a result have lots of international cyclists but B reckons its because their legs are too short and their riding style wrong.
M’s pet peeve about the Japanese is they wander around and don’t walk in straight lines. People don’t really seem to be in a hurry ever. They are on their phones incessantly and maybe that is one of the reasons they wander seemingly aimlessly when walking on the sidewalks. It drives M insane. Their phone usage is a thing to behold though. At the restaurant 2 nights ago the man at the table next to us was on his phone the entire time except when he was eating – no conversation with his wife at all.
Japanese must eat out a lot. They have very basic facilities in their homes (from what we can see from the AirBnBs we stayed at) but there are thousands of restaurants around. It seems (from my quick google search) that what is quite common is that people buy pre-cooked food at a market, supermarket or restaurant and take that home to eat. Eating out though is expensive. Fast food will start at around R150 ($10) per person. Expensive restaurants will be very expensive – R3000 ($200) per person could easily be the cost for a good restaurant. The quality of the food is generally very good though. Their sushi is really in a different league to what I have eaten elsewhere but expect to eat sashimi, nigri and maki as the main items. The stuff we get at home isn’t ‘real’ sushi.
Every restaurant has chairs outside. Even if the place is empty they make you sit there first before they give you a table. Not sure if it’s because they just love queues (see point 2) or if it’s because they want everyone to think they’re busy or what. You should expect though to always be made to wait before you get a table.
Japanese toilets are a thing to behold. M has come to love the use of the ‘shower’ facility in the toilet. Don’t know how he is going to cope when he goes back home. Some of the toilets have a place to wash your hand on top of them. Very clever because when you flush the water runs into a bowl at the top and you can wash your hands. That water then flows into the cistern to be used for the next flush. That is a clever form of recycling and I wonder why we don’t have these back home. It really is sensible. The controls next to the toilet seats are amazing though. Still haven’t figured out what they are all for. Every Japanese toilet comes with a heated seat though. You can generally adjust the temperature as well. Now that is what I call unnecessary.
Japanese people don’t seem to feel the heat or sweat much. It was pretty hot and humid the whole time we were in Japan. Yet we would often see people wearing jerseys. Hardly anyone wear shorts. We were sometimes pouring with sweat and they were walking around like they were in Iceland in the winter!
Japanese woman dress extremely well. I don’t think I saw a poorly dressed Japanese woman – regardless of their age. Hair, makeup always done well. It is clear they take pride in their appearance. It was very noticeable and striking. I left this one for near the end of the blog for O’s sake (soon to become M’s wife) but I must admit it was one of the first things I noticed (M was well-behaved though O).
It also seems like there are a lot more Japanese woman than men. The ratio of women:men is 1.05 but it feels much bigger than that. It seems the women are often out and about. In restaurants you will often see tables of women meeting for lunch or dinner but never men. Apparently Japanese young adults are dating less and less. The men are socially awkward and some withdraw entirely from society. They are called hikikomori and they estimate that 600 000 young men (aged 18-30) now fall into that category. Young women are interested in pursuing careers and so dating has now fallen to an all time low. It is a further problem for the Japanese birth rate which is already pretty low at 1.45. Despite knowing all of this, we saw a lot of young families and young children in the main cities especially in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. It seems the older people live outside of the main cities.
Japan is very quiet. Eerily so at times. You wonder where the 140 million people are actually because unless it is rush hour, you don’t really see them on the streets. We saw the most people at the stations and on the trains. During the day they must be in their homes or at their offices and they don’t venture out a lot. But even when they are out, they are quite. They don’t talk loudly and their children are generally very well-behaved. Their cars aren’t noisy (many of them are hybrids) and I think we only heard someone use their hooter once. Once or twice someone on a bike would ring their bell at us but otherwise it is very quiet.
I know that is long but I hope it is worth the read! I certainly have enjoyed my time here and I know B & M did as well. It really was a great experience. If you have the means, I would say give Japan a visit!
Yesterday was our last day & night in Japan and the last game we were watching (SA v Italy). We really had done everything there was to see in Hamamatsu so we decided to spend the morning in the room and leave for the stadium around 3pm. We had to take a train to the stadium this time – about 5/6 stops – 30 minutes roughly. We got off at Aino station which then requires a short walk to the stadium.
As we (and most of the train) exited, we were directed toward a fan area which had food stalls and a stage where various people were doing performances. There were a large number of Safricans around. M & I got some lunch of fried chicken, soba noddles (for M) and fries (for me). We sat on the edge of the area and ate our late lunch and watched the festivities. They started to play a South African house song (recognisable to both M & I but we don’t know the name). A large group of Safricans took over the stage and started dancing as only Safricans can do. The announcer said ‘5 minutes only’.
M & I then started walking up to the stadium. In honour of B we had one last soft serve ice cream as we headed up. The stadium is on the side of a hill and has a travelator to get up to it. Probably the longest travelator I have ever seen. Of course our seats were on the other side of the stadium so we had to walk right around the stadium to get to our seats.
M got his second cider of the trip (Japanese don’t do cider clearly) at the stadium and we were in our seats relatively early again (despite leaving much later). The atmosphere in the stadium was the best we have experienced so far. You could hear the Safricans singing the national anthem and there was definitely more support for the Springboks (even from the locals) than Italy. We really enjoyed the game especially since we were so dominant but the atmosphere really added to it as well. It was pretty chilly though and for the first time in over 2 weeks M & I put on a jersey towards the end.
As the game ended we headed out as quickly as possible knowing that it was going to be difficult to get onto a train as everyone was likely heading to the station. We walked very quickly and also did some good Safrican jaywalking to get past the baton wielding traffic police. We managed to pass a good few thousand people and into the station about 2-3 minutes before a train left. We headed to very last carriage which was relatively empty in comparison to all the other carriages. The train going the other direction was packed full though and they were literally pushing people in so that the doors could close (the classic Youtube clips you see of people being pushed into Japanese trains at rush hour).
We got back to the hotel at around 10pm. We are now on a Shinkansen train to Shinagawa where we change to a local line to Hamatsucho and then onto the Tokyo Monorail to Haneda Airport. Our flight leaves at 5pm for Singapore where we have two hours layover before connecting onto the flight back to Cape Town.
It was a really great trip not only experiencing Japanese culture and people but also watching the rugby. It is a country well worth visiting. I will send my summary thoughts of Japan later today as well so today you get blessed with a double blog!
Until next time (which will be a road trip in Dec/Jan) …
M & I have researched the area quite a bit and besides the city centre and castle (which we did yesterday), the only other thing that looked worthwhile to see/spend time at was Lake Hamana. It is actually strictly speaking a lagoon as it is connected to the Pacific Ocean but Japan considers it to be the 10th largest lake in Japan. The water in the lake is brackish because of the connection to the ocean though apparently it wasn’t like this until 1498 when an earthquake in the area changed the topography. The lake is well known as it is a key source of eel, nori (what is wrapped around maki), prawns and soft-shelled turtles. That means they are many restaurants in the area specialising in those delicacies especially unagi (freshwater eel). While we have tried many local Japanese dishes while here, eel & turtle aren’t two things I am rushing to eat. I have eaten eel before and really don’t like it (it is very fatty and rich). What further puts me off eating it, is that unagi is poisonous unless cooked – thanks I will give it a skip!
All of that to say that M and I though we should at least go and look at Lake Hamana. Unfortunately to get to the resort area requires a 45 minute taxi costing the price of my house or a bus (slightly cheaper at about $10) but it stops 26 times on route to the area. Neither of those were of interest to us so we decided to rather take the train (free because of our rail pass) to Bentenjima station which is on the southern most tip of the lake and to walk to the Nagisaen camping ground (didn’t know the Japanese would camp!) which would give us a view of the lake.
While walking up to the lake the locals were looking at us like we were lost. They were no doubt thinking ‘Who are these idiots and why are they here – the tourist area is 45 minutes away’. The camp site was deserted except for one tent with some people in it. It seems the Japanese don’t camp. Lovely flat field though that M and I thought would make for a nice cricket field. M decided to climb down and at least feel how warm the water was – I didn’t want to risk it in any case of a sudden tsunami given these signs are up in numerous places.
Having seen the lake, we headed back to the train and back to hotel for the balance of the day. We did make a quick stop at the supermarket to have some snacks & drinks available for the balance of the day. We headed out again for dinner in the evening. Given we have eliminated unagi as a meal choice, that does limit the number of restaurants available to us. M did some googling and found that one of the top rated restaurants was an Italian place with an Italian chef/owner. Given we are playing Italy next it seemed fitting to eat some Italian food. While expensive (and turned out to be the most expensive meal we have had in Japan), it was still reasonable versus what we could pay.
M & I had wine for the first time in a week (Italian of course) and we had Japanese Carpaccio for starters and seafood risotto for main course. Both were very good. It was definitely the best food we have eaten since we have been here.
One thing I keep forgetting to tell you about Hamamatsu is that the signs are all in 3 languages – Japanese, English and Portuguese. The latter might surprise you but it is because a large number of Brazilian Japanese moved here since the 1980s. Hamamatsu has the largest number of Brazilian Japanese at around 15000. The Japanese government is trying to encourage them to return to Brazil and has a programme running that pays them $5000 a person if they return to Brazil and commit to not come back to Japan. Seems a little strange given the Japanese population needs younger people to support their aging population but clearly they don’t want Brazilian Japanese to do that.
Until tomorrow and our last game and last night in Japan ….
We had breakfast included in our hotel rate and so M & I waited until towards the end of breakfast time to have breakfast so we could sort of combine it with lunch and skip lunch. The breakfast is a wide spread of both local and western type breakfast. Most importantly I can get an decent americano (or two) and not have to pay R65 (or more).
After breakfast M and I walked up to Hamamatsu Castle (about 1.5km from the hotel). It was built about 500 years using a stone packing technique. The stone packing is very strong because as you can tell the castle is still standing today. The castle itself (not the foundation bit) was damaged in WW2 raids but has been restored to its original condition.
The castle is surrounded by a park (surprisingly called the Castle Park!) and the grounds are quite extensive. It is a place of peace and tranquility. I said to M that you can see why gardens appeal to Japanese because they basically have no space at home (either inside their homes or around their homes). So you must value the open spaces you can access elsewhere. The different places in the garden had different significance but all the plaques were in Japanese only and google translate (while very handy for a trip like this) doesn’t do a great job on sentences.
As there isn’t a lot to do around Hamamatsu, we walked back to the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon in the room. I managed to do some work and M wiled away the time on whatsapp and watching YouTube clips or whatever (and catching up on some sleep).
Later in the evening we headed out to get some dinner. We have eliminated the restaurants in the hotel as options as I don’t want to be bankrupt when I get home. One of the restaurants here has dinner for Yen20000 ($200 or roughly R3000) per person! There are a lot of restaurants around though at the station and also on the basement level of our hotel. We headed to the station and after not finding anything that grabbed our attention we realised we actually felt like a burger and so headed back to basement level where we knew there was a burger place. The only issue is that none of their staff spoke any English and our Japanese is limited to arigatou and hai (which the Japanese use a lot by the way).
The staff kept talking to us in full sentences like we could understand them and when we looked blankly at them they repeated it but much slower. It seems that speaking slower when people don’t understand your language isn’t just a think English speaking people do! Needless to say them speaking slower didn’t help us but we did manage to muddle our way through placing an order and we got the right things so we consider ourselves to have been successful. Japan does food well (whatever you end up eating) and the burgers were no exception.
We checked out just before 11am and headed to our last stop on our Japanese tour. We were heading to Hamamatsu which is north east of Osaka on the coast. Multiple trains involved (as per usual) – train to Osaka, change onto a train to Shinosaka and then shinkansen from Shinosaka to Hamamatsu. There are a number of things that amaze me about Japan and I have only ever seen in this country (and I have been to quite a few). For example, I have never seen an escalator that starts as stairs, goes flat in the middle for a bit and then goes back into stairs again. I tried to capture it in the picture. It basically matches the profile of the staircase.
Hamamatsu is a musical city and the building is designed to resemble a harmonica. The building has a concert hall and there is a musical museum also attached to the building. The hotel only occupies from the 30th floor upwards and there is an observation deck on top floor (45th). We are staying on the 34th floor and have views over the area out to the ocean. I tried to take a photo from the room window but it is almost impossible to give you a sense of how densely populated the area is. My wife always says photos need to be 2/3rd sky and 1/3rd land – I went with 2/3rds land and 1/3rd sky to try give you an idea!
As I mentioned, it is a musical city and the home to Yamaha – both the motor company and the music company are headquartered here. It is also the home of Kawai who claim to be the leaders in innovation around pianos (they apparently invented the digital piano and also pioneered the move away from wood to carbon for grand pianos). The prefecture (Shizuoka) is also the home of Suzuki and Honda.
Once we had checked in we headed out to the shops to find some lunch. We felt like some fresh fruit and so found a local supermarket and bought fruit, cheese and biscuits and some chicken skewers for lunch. It was a low cost approach which we then blew over dinner. Neither of us felt like doing much yesterday and so I did some work and we watched some movies. We went for dinner in the hotel. They have a teppanyaki restaurant and we wanted to give that a try but when we arrived we were told it was ‘full’ (in very broken English) though M and I could see that there were only 3-4 people in the restaurant! No amount of asking how it could be ‘full’ when then were only a handful of people occupying the place made any difference and so we headed off and went to the Chinese restaurant instead.
We had some dim sum, sweet & sour chicken and beef with oyster sauce. It was very good (probably some of the best food we have had since we have been here) but it was also very pricey. We will try and find a cheaper alternative for the next few nights!
