In a shock-turn of events Caitlin-chan has apparently had “maybe one of the best days of the holiday”. For someone claiming to not love Japan, she sure does seem to be having an awful lot of fun.
Tatami mat life is akin to camping swag life. You get a mattress you sort of roll around on and have your belongings strewn around you. Reading is a challenge in both as your arms inevitably get tired no matter how you hold the book.
I heard about Tono while looking for a spot between Tokyo and the start of our walk. It was described as the home of Japanese folklore and I read a manga of the quintessential Tono Monogatari (sort of like Japan’s Brothers Grimm fairytales). You can see why the stories found themselves in the foggy mountain forests and these stories are the defining part of the local identity to this very day.
The Tono Municipal Museum is apparently Caitlin’s favourite ever museum. This was somewhat due to their high-tech proximity-based audioguide where Caitlin mashed one button and got interesting tidbits.
Caitlin disgraced herself by grabbing a plate from the bar on the Izakaya (sort of like a bistro/bar combo – everything in Japan is a hole-in-the-wall vibe and these are no different). I had told her this was not appropriate before she did it, but she did anyway… She felt suitably humiliated when everyone made a big fuss immediately and the chef showed us a message on Google translate “If you need any help at all, just let me know?” I had no choice but to order another round of plum-wine sodas to retain our dignity.
CR: I wake up disgruntled. I am not a fan of tatami mat life. You are always having to get up and down from the floor. If you want to put on your shoes, you have to sit on the floor. If you’d like to watch tv, you have to sit on the floor. There is no back support so is quite uncomfortable to read or relax before bed. The view was pleasant (pictured) but because you are on the floor you cannot see it. Declan can sense all this turmoil brewing on my side of the futon within moments of waking and simply sings “Piper, nooo”, alleging me to be the spoilt White Lotus brat who claims she wants an authentic experience overseas but actually just wants to stay at a five star hotel where everything operates exactly the same as life at home. DW: I can smell the discontent in Caitlin in situations like this. I walk into a room and instantly know the triggers and have to pre-emptively start fighting them with a cheery mood.CR: I might have been very uncomfortable during the night but damn this breakfast is cute. Huge benefit of Japanese cuisine is that you get to buy all these cute little plates. The fire in the background is cozy. There are very few other patrons of the ryokan – possibily two other guests, although there is debate between Declan and I around whether this was the same man and we just can’t tell middle aged Asian men apart. DW: Caitlin has said apparently if she could become a housewife I would get a spread like this every morning. Somehow I doubt it. The breakfast feels nourishing and healthy without being heavy at all. I suspect it takes longer to make than the 2 minutes for my oats.CR: Our Ryokan host is very welcoming, in his own polite, at-arms-length Japanese way. His love language is schedules. Upon seeing the weather for today (constant cold misty rain, obviously, it’s Japanese Blackheath), he decided that renting bikes to explore the area would not be appropriate and instead designed this immaculate schedule for us, bus times included. It cannot be underestimated how critical this schedule was for us to enjoy the day. These buses only run four times a day so if you miss one, you are essentially stuffed. DW: His schedule was actually perfect. We had the right amount of time at each location to amble around and poke at things without getting bored or being rushed. This was one of three maps/schedules he provided us (we had the cultural map, the food map and the schedule map). He checked multiple times that we had this data with us prior to allowing us to depart. It was actually very helpful.DW: Furusato village is a period style village that you can walk around. The fact that it was a rainy Wednesday meant the activities were mostly off, but we had free run of the place to ourselves (and the Kappas).CR: Declan pokes around inside one of this preserved houses. English information is scarce, so we’re not too sure how old this house is. Seems old though. They went for a much more minamilst style. I personally would have had a few more bookcases around the joint. DW: These houses were all around the 150 year old mark I believe. They all had an L-shape with a stable on the leg of the L that allowed the family to see the horses at all times (they were part of the family).CR: While Declan explores I make friends with the locals. DW: I’m not sure where Caitlin-chan was looking for this photo.DW: Everything spiritual in Japan gets money placed on it: the shrines, the massive straw phalluses and this cheeky kappa near the pond. At this point in the day, I was unlicensed and couldn’t capture the cheeky devils. I fixed that later in the day thankfully.CR: Declan took his old phone to Japan, leaving his perfectly competent Google Pixel 6a in Sydney. I am never clear why he does this. The phone is boarding on useless. My phone is stolen for all computing intensive tasks (such as uploading photos to the blog). The one thing his old phone can do is Google Translate, and boy does Declan go all in on that feature. All day I bear witness to translated signs of either no importance or erroneous, nonsensical English. This one says “Alert, there is a pool. Be cautious or an unintended accident may occur.” DW: The phone is for opsec reasons and to mitigate against single points of failure where I lose all my 2FA.CR: Rice paddies, cherry blossoms, mountains, cloud.DW: Having mastered rail transit and constantly pushing my boundaries, I move to buses. The prices are confusing, numerous and constantly increasing. Thankfully, I determine that all the prices are for show only and there is a hard 200 JPY cap. No change is given, but there is a change machine on the bus. The bus comes every 2 hours. We are the only people on the bus. CR: Dad, I have witnessed something alarming that I must report. Declan had 500 yen coin. Bus fare was 200 yen each. He did not want to use the change machine (seperate to the payment machine), so he put in the full 500 yen coin to pay for our fare. Both the bus driver and I are astonished about this. Why not keep the 100 Yen (A$1.10)? I am horrified. This is one third of the cost of a gatcha that might not be a hamster.DW: At times it is hard to know if there is a cultural gap or Google translate is having issues. The way this reads it is half-implied that everyone has anal beads. I can no longer look at the people I meet in the street the same way now.DW: I admire the regions dedication to the kappa. It is a cute and silly concept, but unifies the area thematically and culturally. The kappa pops up everywhere: storm water drain covers, telling drivers to slow down and in the plastic supports holding up traffic bollards. There is so much sick Kappa swag. I am aware of the hypocrisy, but you can’t stop me. I warned Caitlin to not waste her swag allowance on Tokyo trinkets. FYI, you catch kappas with cucumbers on fishing poles, but you need a licence to do so (the gift shop sells licences thankfully – I hurriedly place one on the counter as Caitlin is finalising another purchase of sick merch).CR: We have lunch at a tiny fringe villiage called Denshoen. There are cherry blossoms everywhere in the North. I can understand why tourists are excited about them. They are very pretty and ethereal. In Tono there is very little English spoken and no Western people that we have seen. In the fringe villages there is zero English. We have a humourous interaction at lunch where our waitress attempts to mime how to eat a yakimochi filled with miso and melted brown sugar. It’s surprisingly hard to convey bite and suck through sign language. The bite bit is okay, but it is trickier to illustrate sucking out the contents of a yakimochi.DW: Pauline would be having a fit if she saw this many cherry blossoms in real life. I didn’t plan this at all, it just happened to line up with the time of our visit.DW: I asked our host about bears in the areas, “bears, have you ever seen any?” and he immediately responded with “oh yes, many, all the time”. This filled Caitlin with hope as we trudged around this hill in the afternoon. All we found was one suspect scat, specific type unknown.CR: We hit the town of Tono for a beer crawl, after sitting for an hour or so having coffee. Decondo-san and I constantly marvel at the economics of small eateries in Japan. This was a brewery where we hung out for a while and replied to dad’s comments on the blog (hopefully all questions adequately answered) and in that hour only two other people came in, ordered some drinks and a small snack and left. In the coffee shop beforehand it was just us ordering coffee and again two other single patrons. For an hour. Being a shop owner means a lot of standing around, as serving customers is not the majority of your day. DW: I don’t understand any of the economics of these shops. They can’t be bringing in more than $20 AUD an hour (before you take out costs and labour!) at best and often less.CR: For someone who spent three days prohibiting me taking photos, you’d be shocked who suddenly wants a million photos once a drink menu is out in front of him. We’re struggling to remember the exact line Bill Murray is required to play out in his Lost in Translation whisky ad. I love in this clip the Japanese advertorial director has the English translation in subtitles, which does not get included in the actual movie (https://youtu.be/XElQLXXyblk?si=CnWh8pQAS8_2Jnyn). DW: These photos are obviously telling a unique and interesting contextual story. Also, I needed to annoy Joe with my positive attitude. This Izakaya was recommended by our host and was great. At the end of the night (after I had recovered our honour from Caitlin’s social “incident”), our host asks (all discussions here are occurring via Google Translate) where we are staying. I tell him and he says he will get someone to drive. Unclear of this situation, we say no, a taxi is OK. He provides us with words to the effect of “I will get you a taxi, OK?”. We accept and chill for a few more mins. His wife then lets us know the taxi is here. Upon initial inspection I am thinking this is some unlicensed taxi as it lacks plates, funny ball on top, etc. I place my confidence in the high-trust society (and the multiple plum-wine sodas I have enjoyed) and we get in. The driver offers us an ice cream, we are confused. I look again. The chef is driving the car. The cogs start turning. I understand and accept my magnum ice cream. We make the trip slowly with the mandatory TV that every Japanese car has on in the background. Every few hundred meters, he sort of pulls over and asks us a question. “Why are you visiting Tono?” he asks. I tell him. “That is amazing” he responds. “I love Tono” he says. I tell him we are going to do the coastal hike. “That is amazing” he responds. We pull up at our hotel and make a feeble attempt to ask if we can pay, it is refused. We depart and enter our hotel bowing to him as we do with our little head bows. At that point I realised I left the umbrellas in the restaurant.
The content was fascinating and the photos were fantastic.
It was like an extended novel set over just one day.
Declan is playing fast and loose with the bus money.
The overspend on the bus was half a note pad.
In time how long would it take to get to Tokyo. Seems like another world.
Amazing how beautiful the scenery is and that there are no tourists.
I watched the lost in translation clip with the subtitles on and it was very funny.
Are the bears known to hurt people.
You both look very happy.
We also thought best blog so far. Getting out of the city gives more interesting content as you are forced to do activities more slowly as there is just far less to do in general. For example, we were at the ye-oldie villiage (about ten structures in total) for two hours, which is a long time to spend looking at not a whole heap. Allows more time to think about what you are seeing. Like the chef/taxi driver says “Time passes slow here”.
It took us four hours to get from Tokyo to Tono. One bullet train most of the way and then the one carriage tiny train for the last hour.
We are told that only black bears in the region. “They are not so dangerous”.
Great post! Best so far. I will be interested to see if all sleeping is on a mat – even Piper got a bed. I was a little horrified by the google translation 🤪 very peculiar. My favourite picture was the thatched cottage, just beautiful. Declan’s last post was a mini movie I could hear the narrator say at the end..I left the umbrellas at the restaurant (fade out). Excited for the next part of your adventure. Hope you get some good sleep and decent weather and that any bears are cute and friendly xx
Best blog by far.
The content was fascinating and the photos were fantastic.
It was like an extended novel set over just one day.
Declan is playing fast and loose with the bus money.
The overspend on the bus was half a note pad.
In time how long would it take to get to Tokyo. Seems like another world.
Amazing how beautiful the scenery is and that there are no tourists.
I watched the lost in translation clip with the subtitles on and it was very funny.
Are the bears known to hurt people.
You both look very happy.
We also thought best blog so far. Getting out of the city gives more interesting content as you are forced to do activities more slowly as there is just far less to do in general. For example, we were at the ye-oldie villiage (about ten structures in total) for two hours, which is a long time to spend looking at not a whole heap. Allows more time to think about what you are seeing. Like the chef/taxi driver says “Time passes slow here”.
It took us four hours to get from Tokyo to Tono. One bullet train most of the way and then the one carriage tiny train for the last hour.
We are told that only black bears in the region. “They are not so dangerous”.
Great post! Best so far. I will be interested to see if all sleeping is on a mat – even Piper got a bed. I was a little horrified by the google translation 🤪 very peculiar. My favourite picture was the thatched cottage, just beautiful. Declan’s last post was a mini movie I could hear the narrator say at the end..I left the umbrellas at the restaurant (fade out). Excited for the next part of your adventure. Hope you get some good sleep and decent weather and that any bears are cute and friendly xx