Japan

First Notes on Japan

Right everyone. This is actually now my third day here, but the first time I've managed t find an internet cafe. Though the place I'm in isn't exactly and internet cafe. But it's free which is good, and uses Mac's which is good too.

So on to more important things, like the weather. If I had found this place this morning I could tell you how beutifully sunny it was and how good the weather had been since I got here. But then it started to rain, though it has stopped again now, amazingly this is only the second day in my entire trip that it has rained.

Even more importanly you might all like to know what I have been up to. On the 29th I flew from Vladivostok to Toyama, leaving at 9:30 and getting in at around 11:30 (both local times). This was all fairly uneventfull except for the rather sceptical Japanese immigration officer who didn't quite seem to believe I'd really be here for 90 days (I'd never expected to have more trouble at Japanese immigration than Russian, which was just a case of repeatedly handing over my passport). I didn't have any problems with the Russian customs either which I had been somewhat nervous about. Unfortuantly I did have one slight problem as there was no exchange office in Vladivostok and the Toyama one was shut. Thus I was now at Toyama airport, with money in three different currencies, but none valid in this country. Cue one rather long walk into the centre of Toyama. Other than the rather heavy rucksack I was carrying it was actually quite a pleasant walk, on a ncie sunny day. I got onto a track by the river and followed that till I saw the railway bridge then followed the railway to the train station, from where I could find the post office and, joy of joys, a cash machine! So, now in Toyama with money I wondered around a bit before the very helpfull tourist information service helped me get a bus to my hotel. I stayed there for the next two nights and explored Toyama a bit more, but didn't do anything much.

And on to yet more important things like where I actually am. Today I caught a train from Toyama to Kanazawa which took about two hours (only one on the train though, the other was working out which train I was getting). In the end I got the Limited Express "Thunderbird" which was a very pleasant ride, including some nice views of snow-capped mountains in the distance. I'm going to be here in Kanazawa for the next few days (I've got three nights in a Japanese Ryokan), so if anyone knows anything interesting about the place your welcome to let me know. I've got a few ideas for what I'm going to be doing with the time I have here and when I move on but your just going to have to wait and see. Kanazawa is obviously a more tourist friendly city, as denoted by the fact that I've already bumped into a few groups of english and american tourists in my hours here compared to my none in Toyama. This is probably a good thing overall at this stage of my trip but I'm not sure that I prefer it.

Oh, I suppose you'll be wanting to know what I think of Japan in general and how the whole langauge barrier problem is working out. Well I like it here. The language barrier is not proving to be a great problem, you'd be amazed at how much is written in english. And a lot of people know enough english for me to manage what I want.

Well I think this will be a good point to finish what is probably my longest entry yet and I'll get back to you all again in a day or two.

Posted by Haifisch at March 31, 2003 09:50 AM