The Travelling Coeliac Environmentalist: Cherry Blossoms with a dash of Sake

15 March to 2 April 2023

On arrival into Japan we went straight to Nagano to fulfil a wish to visit the Jigokudani Monkey Park and see the fabulous Snow Monkeys. From Nagano the visit required a 50 minute bus trip and a 40 minute walk filled with expansive scenery, tall trees, old wooden buildings and a small continuously erupting geyser. Once we paid to get in and leave our bags we walked up alongside a rushing river, mountains going up all around and noted that there was still snow around. Amongst all of this and just across from a bridge was the hot pool with monkeys lounging around picking bugs off each other to eat, drinking out of the pool, the odd skirmish and general clowning around like little, well, monkeys. They were super friendly, walking among the people at will, sometimes pulling on their clothes and one even tried to take my hiking stick, but in general they, and the humans, behaved themselves. It was amazing and we watched them for about 2 hours before racing down to catch the bus back, needing to power walk as we had only left ourselves about half an hour.

We decided today to go for a walk to Jitsukyama Park. It was about a 6 km trek and we needed the exercise. Unfortunately when we got there we found it was closed. Shame because it was a sunny lovely day. Luckily it was a great walk with high views over the city and mountains, gave us a different view of the town, its buildings and architecture and went right through Zenko-ji Temple, a 1400 year old Buddhist temple in a huge garden setting full of huge manicured trees making it look like a giant’s bonsai garden.

We then headed down to Fukuoka where we will start our cherry blossom tour. Being a few days early we spent our time regaining fitness in an Anytime Fitness gym, exploring the city and chasing up some dedicated gluten free bakeries for tasty treats.

Our home for the next 12 days was one of 3 buses packed full of Australians, 153 of them. First stop in Fukuoka was the shrine at Dazaifu Tenmangu, popular for students praying for exam results. This was a walk through numerous tori gates getting you purified and then over 3 bridges, one each for past, present and future. Finally at the shrine you prayed, having been super purified. The gardens and again the trees were so beautiful and majestic. We then went to a sake brewery where we got to sample sake. The smaller the number the better the quality as it represents how much of the rice grain was used, so a lower number meant more of the husk was removed. They also had a bubbly one and non alcoholic and plum ones. I liked them all but Elizabeth went more for the plum (sweeter) and non alcoholic. Finally we went to the Hakata Machiya Folk Museum to see traditional ways of living. This town is famous for a summer festival that concludes with different districts racing each other with the men carrying huge carved floats. Quite dangerous. They have to run 5 km, and do a sharp turn against a pole where some people get trapped all while wearing underwear like the sumo wear and a top. Looked quite ridiculous but they all take it super seriously and have been doing it for a long time.

Next stop was Nagasaki and its associated Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park. This was a cut down version of Hiroshima's, which is still our favorite. Also visited Dejima Port, an artificial island run by the Dutch to facilitate world trade but now reclaimed and made into a museum.

Went to the town of Unzen to go and see the dormant volcano named Unzen Jigoku (Unzen Hell). Not so dormant as the steam from the fumaroles combined with mist and clouds caused nearly 100% visibility loss at times. During clearer times the active fumaroles were easily seen blasting out their sulphuric smells and bubbling pools were everywhere. Very thrilling. On our way down to the port for the ferry ride to Kumamoto we passed a huge park that was covered in cherry blossom trees in full bloom. The driver did a 3 point turn in the bus and took us back, whereupon the whole bus streamed out like kids in a bouncy castle running around taking pictures of the marvelous scenes of cherry blossoms in such a lovely setting.

The next day our first stop was Kumamoto Castle. We went into the castle and went straight to the top on the observation deck for the magnificent views. Lots of cherry blossoms in bloom enhancing most views. We then went to Suizenji Park which was fabulous with a miniature grassy Mt Fuji, the beautiful sculpted trees, wide lakes full of fish and birds and a cherry blossom area that was dropping so many blossoms it looked like snow. Lastly was Mt Aso, one of the largest caldera active volcanoes in the world. We walked to the centre, up a mound to see panoramic views of it.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire our next stop after the volcano was Beppu and a tour of super hot lakes collectively called the Hells of Beppu (Jigokudani Meguri). We visited about 7 of them. They were all different colours depending on the chemical structure of the area. We saw bright red ones, turquoise, blue, orange, green and also grey bubbling mud lakes and a geyser that erupts every 30 to 40 minutes. When we got back Elizabeth and I used an Onsen for the first time. Complicated process. You are meant to go down in your robe and with 2 towels. You select a locker and completely undress, totally nude and place your clothes and big towel in locker. Then you go into the bath area and wash publicly under showers first and then go and sit in the bath. The little towel you can use for modesty on the way and then put on your head while you sit in the bath. Then when you come out you are meant to wash yourself thoroughly, men were shaving, brushing teeth and hair etc, and then dry, dress and go back to your room. I took a few shortcuts. Rinse, clean, in and out and had my proper shower in my room.

From there we went on to Hiroshima and a tour to Myajima Island. First time here in 2012 it was raining and the torii gate in the water was covered due to renovations. Today was a beautiful sunny day and the torii gate was freshly painted and on full display. We went for a big hike along random paths ending up quite high with a gentle waterfall with awesome views on the way. Next stop was the Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Museum. We rushed through the museum so that we could spend the majority of the time in the peace park. We walked around and saw all of the peace monuments and displays. Went on to our new favourite restaurant for dinner and then went back to the peace park to see it at night. The flame, main monument and the dome were all lit up and looked peaceful in the night light. Still people were coming up to pay their respects. In the end we did 16 km of walking and about 24,000 steps.

We spent the next day travelling to Osaka via Himeji Castle, a white castle which is the biggest in Japan. Had a lovely complex of 9 Japanese gardens as well. Very beautiful with all the white cherry blossoms and some pink ones too. Perfect blue sky which made the white blossoms stand out much more.

For our free day in Osaka we grabbed a train and went to Nara and its deer park. In this huge park are many, many deer. They are not wild anymore and are largely domesticated due to their frequent experiences with tourists. You are encouraged to buy crackers to feed the deer with and the proceeds go to protecting the deer. You hold the cracker up and the deer bow their heads to ask for the cracker. They are very friendly but skittish. As well as the deer, the park itself was huge and lovely with lots of lakes, cherry blossoms, trees and temples. Many wedding groups and coming of age girls were having photos taken in pretty colourful kimonos in the lush surroundings.

Travel day to Shizuoka followed Osaka and included a bullet train. The trip was broken up by visits to a Japanese confectionery factory, if you call a biscuit made of eel confectionery, and a green tea farm. After dinner we went for a wander and visited Sunpu Castle. It's just castle ruins but the trip to it had many lanterns dotted with cherry blossoms and once we went through the castle facade we found ourselves in a huge park with what seemed like a festival going on. Rows and rows of food stalls of all types, lights everywhere and a stage that had quite energetic Japanese dancing going on in exquisite costumes. The energy reminded me of Bollywood dancing but with a samurai twist to it and twirling umbrellas.

The next day was our final long travel day to Tokyo. It was broken up by a picture stop at Mt Fuji, a cruise on Lake Ashi in a pirate ship followed by a gondola ride to Mt Hakone and hot volcanic smoking vents.

Last day on the tour was a free day in Tokyo. We found our way through the insane subway with its maze of multi level tunnels to the Imperial Palace where it was the last day to walk down Inui Street. It was only opened for 1 week for the cherry blossoms and this was its last day. We got in, after going through 3 checkpoints for temperature and sanitising, bags, and lastly for a security scan, and walked down the street. Most cherry blossoms were now past their prime but exploding in bright, lime green leaves. After that we went through the public gardens of the palace. It was a nice end to the tour, especially as we bumped into quite a few tour buddies there.