Kobe > Kyoto > Kanazawa
It was a case of rise and shine relatively early for the first day of the Japan Rail Pass big travel week, and no sooner had ‘Er Indoors checked out (by machine, a process completely devoid of human influence on the business end) than we were heading off in search of the subway station that would begin the day’s journey.
I hadn’t actually seen the sort of crowding that people tend to associate with rush hour Japanese subway travel up to this point. You know what I mean, those images of heavily built railway staff on hand to push a few extra passengers into a sardine-packed carriage.
The heavily built people pushers were conspicuous by their absence when we arrived on the platform, joining perhaps a dozen people waiting for the next train. The arrival of the train, however, suggested they’d been needed further up the line. The carriages were packed and it was with difficulty that we made our way towards the carriage against a flood tide of black-suited salary-men.
And, once the previously packed compartments had emptied we found ourselves almost alone in a strangely deserted carriage.
Of course, we were headed out of the city centre, towards Shin-Kobe Station, which is, like many of the shinkansen depots, located slightly away from the main commercial and business area of Kobe.
We arrived with plenty of time to spare, which allowed us to enjoy a leisurely breakfast before it was time to board the 8:25 service to Kyoto.
Having grown up in Queensland where the trains operate at a much lower level of intensity I’d been warned that the 8:25 train means the one that actually leaves at 8:25 and will arrive, more or less at eight-twenty-three and a half, being a completely different conveyance to the 8:22 which leaves the same platform for, more than likely, a completely different destination.
I’d become accustomed to the guide lines on the commuter rail platforms, but at most shinkansen stations there are barriers with gaps where the train’s doors will open.
And, amazingly, that’s exactly where they do open, and you’ve got about a minute and a half (if that) to get on board and locate your seat before you’re off.
We talk about bullet trains but there are actually three levels of service on the Tokaido/Sanyo shinkansen lines
The fastest, Nozomi (hope or wish) are, more or less, extreme express affairs, stopping at a handful of stations and aren’t covered by the Japan Rail Pass, so there was no way we were going to be gracing one with our presence on this trip, which was a pity since they’re capable of covering the 515 kilometres between Tokyo and Osaka in two and a half hours.
The intermediate level Hikari (light or ray) services stop at a few more stations, usually to allow the faster Nozomi to pass.
The slowest Kodama (echo) services stop at all stations, allowing faster services to pass through.
Once aboard Hikari 364 Thunderbird 7 (impressive name, or what?) the first section of the journey took us through a tunnel, emerging onto a viaduct comfortably above the surrounding conurbation. Faced with obstacles like hills, the shinkansen services go through rather than over them. If the obstacle is a built up area the solution is, predictably to go over rather than through.
Despite the elevation, however, there wasn’t a lot to see because of the barriers on either side of the track. There was, predictably, even less when we met with trains heading in the opposite direction. I did, however, manage to recognize the river we crossed on the outskirts of Osaka, which we reached a quarter of an hour after leaving Kobe.
While we were travelling much faster than I’d become accustomed to on the commuter services, things seemed much less blurred as we went past, presumably because the buildings were below us rather than flashing past at eye-level.
And very peaceful travelling it was, sitting back in airline-style seats with the sort of leg room you might get in business class (if you’re lucky) with something pleasant to listen to:
five minutes out of Kyoto on shinkansen
timeless rice paddies amidst scattered timber houses
john fahey steamboat gwine ‘round the bend
on iPod.
Fourteen minutes after Osaka, we were disembarking in Kyoto.
The next service, which would carry us on to Kanazawa, wasn’t shinkansen-flash, but was comfortable enough, with comparable leg room. Once we’d boarded I watched through the window as the platform supervisor (I assume the guard was at the rear of the train) performed some arcane bi-directional ritual to indicate our departure.
And, once underway I realized what I’d been missing all morning. There was none of that click-clack Australian rail commuters experience as the wheels cross the slight gaps between one section of rail and the next.
Mind you, if they did exist, at shinkansen-speed they’d probably sound more like machine-gun fire, which probably explains why they don’t (exist, that is).
On the way out of Kyoto we ran into the same patchwork landscape I’d noticed before, a quilt of factories, houses, light and heavy industry, an occasional farmlet, and the odd timeless graveyard.
Interestingly, almost every stream we crossed seemed to have been carefully channelled, and as I looked back over the previous couple of days I couldn’t remember seeing a stream with banks that weren’t lined with bricks, stone or concrete. I was also bemused by the fact that many seemingly old, traditional houses were sporting reverse cycle air-conditioning units and even satellite dishes.
As we moved into forested slopes above farmland, the villages became increasingly scattered between flooded paddy fields. By ten-thirty we had glimpses away to the right, more or less in the direction we were headed the following day.
As we neared Kanazawa we’d passed through the central mountain chain, and it seemed considerably cooler than on the other side of the divide. I guessed that the weather on this side of the country was influenced by the colder air emanating from the depths of continental Asia whereas the eastern coast was, I suspected, influenced by a warmer ocean current, much as the Gulf Stream moderates temperatures along the eastern coast of North America as far north as Newfoundland.
It may have been the haze I’d noted throughout the past few days but the air looked colder, particularly as I gazed off towards the mountains where we were headed tomorrow.
Once we’d arrived and found our way out of the station, we had a slight problem finding the night’s hotel, passing the street where it was located and thinking it was a minor lane-way too insignificant to feature on the street map. But eventually we realized we’d gone way too far, backtracked, found it, deposited the suitcase and headed off in search of lunch before we set off seeing the sights.
In between the hotel and the station complex, the Forus shopping centre featured a whole floor of restaurants, so it seemed the right place to direct our attention. After completing a circuit of the floor in question we opted for the G&O (Gumbo & Oyster) Bar.
It was around this time that I realized that Madam wasn’t kidding when she said you could find virtually any style of food in Japan if you knew where to look.
I wouldn’t, however, have thought of setting out in search of Louisiana cooking in Kanazawa.
‘Er Indoors selected a set menu with a variety of New Orleans-style treats, which she reported was good while I ordered a couple of oysters natural and a bowl of seafood gumbo.
It obviously pays to be a foreigner eating early since when the oysters arrived there were four of them, plump, juicy and absolutely wonderful. The bowl of gumbo also went down well, washed down with a glass of good Chablis.
Suitably fortified we set off to locate the tour bus which does a clockwise circuit around twenty sites of interest, skipping the first couple of sites before alighting at the stop closest to the old geisha quarter. As it turned out we’d misheard the bus driver’s directions, and headed left along the river bank rather than turning left straight off the bus and turning right at the sushi bar.
As it was, we headed along the river bank and then turned left just after we’d spotted a couple using a camera, a tripod and a timed delay to get a photo of the two of them against a background of cherry blossom.
I took a couple of photos from the same general spot, before the guy with the tripod asked us whether we’d like a photo of the two of us against the same backdrop they’d used. We accepted, passed over the camera and the result appears below.
By this time we realized that we’d taken a wrong turn, but knew where the geisha quarter had to be, and headed in that general direction before an extremely helpful older gentleman put us on the right track.
The geisha quarter was, as the accompanying photos show, quite remarkable, and we stopped at one building which had been set up as an information centre. Based on information received we retraced our steps to a place offering the chance to tour a recreated geisha house.
Unfortunately the battery in the camera decided to pack it in as soon as we walked through the door, so we didn’t walk away with a complete photo tour of the establishment, which was set up the way things would have been.
Anyone with a mind to sample geisha entertainment might be interested to learn that there are still eight houses in the quarter offering the traditional treats, but be warned - it doesn’t come cheaply. We were informed that a ninety minute session would set you back $US 1500!
From there we headed back to the bus stop, boarded the next bus and headed off towards Kanazawa Castle and more cherry blossom.
Unfortunately no sooner had we alighted than the rain, which had been threatening for a while, decided to do a bit more than threaten, so we walked through the drizzle, completing a loop of the Kenrokuen Garden before deciding that enough was enough and heading back to the hotel to check in, rest and recharge the camera.
We had figured that with a break of an hour or so we could head off on the second-last bus for the day, get a couple of photos and catch the final bus back to base, so we emerged from the warmth and dryness of the hotel to find that conditions were cold, drizzly and generally miserable. When we’d boarded the bus in the afternoon it had been fairly crowded. Now, a mere three or four hours later, it was, unsurprisingly, practically deserted.
Since we knew where we were going, we were looking forward to snapping a couple of photos of the sakura in front of the castle before doing a quick lap of the garden, but as soon as we embarked on the latter exercise, the camera decided to inform us that there was no more space on the memory card.
Which was, in a way, just as well, since we only just managed to catch the final bus back.
At the station we booked our seats for the next stage of the trip, headed back into Forus for dinner, opting for a Korean eatery which was not quite what the doctor ordered, eventually returning to the warmth of the hotel hoping that things would turn out better on the morrow.