Japan - Part 1 - Yudanaka

We arrived in Japan on the 7th of March and went forward 19 hours, which was a bit of a shock - lost a day, boo hiss!  As we'd been a bit disorganised, we only had a few general ideas of what we'd be doing for the next few weeks, so we'd pencilled in a couple of days of much needed "planning" time which we maxed out.

Our first impression of Japan to be honest was not that great.  We both independently wondered what on Earth we had done and how we'd get through the next few weeks - coming to a place where we couldn't understand what the people were saying, they couldn't really understand us and had no real idea of how to get around (all public transport, no car this time!).  Frankly, we felt massively out of our comfort zone.

We also had concerns with other silly stuff like what we would eat!  Nothing had any words on that we understood (naturally, this is Japan after all), so from the start we had to try and guess what stuff was based on what it looked like - trust me, this wasn't always easy.

Fortunately, things started to get much better when we left Narita and headed for our first planned stop - Yudanaka.  Where you ask?  Fair question.  Yudanaka is a small town in a fairly rural part of Japan and is most "famous" for being home to the snow monkeys!  Yep, we're suckers for a bit of wildlife.

One of the first challenges was to navigate our way from the airport, via a variety of Japanese trains.  Turns out it wasn't too bad and about 3 hours (& 3 trains) later we ended up in Yudanaka.  Part of the journey was on the speedy Shinkansen (that's the bullet train to you and me) which was pretty fast  - just a shame it was quite an old train.  

It was really cold when we got there and it was even more of a shock as we haven't seen a proper winter for about a year!  So for the first time in a while the warm clothing had to come out.

We had decided to stay in some traditional Japanese accommodation (a Ryokan) and we chose well.  It was owned by Mr & Mrs Yumoto who are 2 of the friendliest and most genuinely helpful people we have met in all of our travels.  They had such great local knowledge, were very funny and I swear were ex ninjas as they would just appear from nowhere when you least expected them!  He provided his own personal shuttle service and would drive us pretty much anywhere we wanted to go - very handy indeed.  The room also had some Yukata's for dressing up!

Our Japanese room

Our Japanese beds

Rob in his Yukata practising martial arts!

So after our first night spent lying on the floor traditional Japanese style (very comfortably though), we woke up to lots of fresh snow!  In a way this was what we had hoped for so that we could see snow monkeys in some proper snow!  So, we made our way to Jigokudani park and walked along the 1.6km snowy path to the entrance.

We were greeted by monkeys before we even got to the entrance gate and when we got in they were literally everywhere - playing, fighting, warming up in the hot bath or just digging around for food.  They were very entertaining and because it was absolutely freezing they tended to spend more time in the onsen (outdoor hot bath) which is what makes the place so interesting.  Some were trying to drown each other like naughty children and others just seemed to be meditating!  

After quite a few hours being entertained we took a slow walk back through the town to the hotel.  This was such a great experience as well with all the locals we passed saying Konnichiwa and everywhere just felt so laid back and safe.  Even some of the school children liked to practice their English and would say hello (and others would give us an odd look as we don't think have seen westerners before)!

That evening we went to a local Japanese restaurant.  We couldn't actually tell it was a restaurant from the outside - such was its disguise, that Mr Miagi, I mean Yumoto, actually drove us to it, even though it was only about a 2 minute walk from the accommodation!  When we got in, it was just like being in someone's kitchen / diner!  We were greeted by 2 very friendly Japanese guys who could speak a little English and it was quite fascinating just sitting there and taking it all in.  We ordered a couple of dishes and we weren't 100% sure exactly what we were going to get - as it turned out, we got plenty to eat the quality was really good - tempura shrimp and vegetables have never tasted so good!  It was a really good experience and it was nice as it seemed like they were so pleased we were there.

Day 2 at the monkey park!  After bumping into a couple of Aussies in town yesterday (who we thought were a bit odd), we saw them again this morning at the entrance to the park.  Now, bearing in mind a lot of snow had thawed since yesterday and the path to the park was much clearer, it seemed really weird that these 2 Aussies were kitting themselves out with tonnes of ice climbing gear - not sure what they were expecting, but should have told them that Mount Everest is in Nepal!  So off we toddled in our wellies and left them to it, after one of them said to Rob "thanks for noticing how prepared we are" - weirdos!

The monkey park today was a bit warmer and a lot of the snow from yesterday had gone.  This meant that the monkeys didn't spend as much time in the onsen, so they mainly entertained us with a floor show.  Very similar to yesterday really, but still very entertaining - they even come close enough to pull at your trousers!  One did get a bit grumpy with Rob though when he got a bit close - he has that affect on people as well!

After we'd had a few more hours at the snow monkey park and tried to get ourselves on the online webcam, we headed off to experience a Japanese onsen of our own - no monkeys in this one. Mr Miagi chauffeured us to a private onsen which overlooked the Japanese alps where we just relaxed and watched the sun go down.

That night we also experienced our first significant earthquake which was 5.1 magnitude. I actually did feel the earth move that night!  It did wake us up briefly and we did feel the house shake, but as it was the middle of the night and we were tired, we just turned over and went straight back to sleep!  We honestly thought it was a big truck going past - it wasn't until the next morning that Mr Yumoto told us it was definitely an earthquake and quite a big one too.  No damage done though which was the main thing.

Mr Yumoto took photos of us before we left (proper family portrait stylee!) and decorated our luggage with souvenir 5 yen ribbons (for safe onward travel) - it was a nice touch!

Mr & Mrs Yumoto

One of our many 5 yen ribbons wishing us a happy connection

So in short, we loved Yudanaka.  The whole experience was so different to what we originally thought it would be.  Mr & Mrs Yumoto were amazing, the locals were genuinely helpful, friendly, polite and respectful which was quite refreshing, and naturally the monkeys added to the memories.

So having feared the worst only a few days earlier, we were now on a real high and massively excited about what else Japan had to offer.  Next stop Osaka and a look at Japanese city life.....

Oahu

So here we are in Oahu - our last Hawaiian island for this trip.  We started out by taking in some of the sights towards the south of the island but this was mainly coastal stuff like we've seen elsewhere and to be honest we were more interested in the North Shore fun and games.

As you may (or may not) know, Hawaii, and Oahu in particular is famous for surfing.  Oahu's North Shore is home to some of the fiercest surfing waves in the world and is a mecca for surf loonies trying to catch the  ultimate 'break'.  So we decided we had to take in some of the action, see if anyone came a cropper and maybe it would encourage us (well put us off probably) to give it a go as well.

Well there were some big waves (like the ones you see on TV) with quite a few people trying to surf them.  It was pretty entertaining just to sit and watch, and we couldn't believe that some people could actually stand on the board and ride the wave - they were so massive at times.  Some of the surfers wiping out and falling off their boards was pretty spectacular too - how there's not more wearing neck braces is beyond me!

Rob had talked about wanting to give surfing a go since we headed to Australia.  He finally decided to do it here - what better place to try than in the home of surfing?!  That said, after seeing the north shore waves he decided for the first time he needed somewhere a tad calmer, so we booked a lesson with the Hawaiian fire crew who teach surfing as well as fight fires.

I (Lisa) decided that surfing wasn't for me (I struggle with my balance at the best of times, so a plank on the water probably wouldn't be any better!).  So I took my seat on the beach, Rob kitted me out with the camera gear and I couldn't help but cheer him on - it was so exciting (for me anyway!).  He did really well and was standing on the board in no time - don't get me wrong he didn't stand all of the time and some of his 'wipeouts' did make me chuckle!

He's suited up and ready for surfing!

A land practice first

And he's off!

His first wipeout!

And he's standing - hooray!!

He did enjoy it but is not sure it's something he wants to do on a regular basis - apparently it was a huge amount of effort for the reward and he ached in places he never knew he had places.  I ached too, but mine was from laughter!

Shattered!

One of the things I wanted to do was go to a Luau - I thought it would be like it was in the film Grease but sadly Danny  and Sandy weren't there!  Seriously though it was good, we were entertained, had a buffet dinner and a Hawaiian story called 'Breath of Life' which had lots of singing, Hawaiian dancing and fire displays.  Sadly we weren't allowed to take photos of the show, but our memories are good ones.

Honolulu sounds very exotic, but in reality is pretty much a concrete jungle with beaches.  It has very good shopping and apparently that's exactly what a lot of people go there for.  We did some shopping on my birthday, watched the sunset on Waikiki beach and then off for a meal in the evening.  Nice way to celebrate being 32!

Other things we did in Oahu... Went to Pearl Harbour, watched a massive monk seal just lazing on the beach, saw green turtles (Honu) on Turtle Beach, visited a Hawaiian botanical garden, had to buy a new laptop as our one broke (damn you Samsung), took a drive to see over Honolulu... The list goes on!

Pearl Harbour

Hawaiian green turtle (Honu)

Mr lazy monk seal

A tree with big balls at the Botanical garden!

A view of Honolulu from Tantalus drive

So before we knew it our time was up in Oahu.  It kind of crept up on us and to be honest we could have done with a little bit longer as there were still a few things we wanted to do that we didn't have time for - but that's always a reason to return. 

In short, Hawaii has been great.  We have met some really lovely people, learnt a lot about the Hawaiian culture and seen & experienced some amazing things.  A great time was had by both of us and we'll look forward to going back some day.

Me and my fresh coconut

For now it's onwards to Japan, something we're not really prepared for!  We have no idea what we are going to do or where we are going to go, we have a flight booked and 3 nights accommodation - best we sort it when we get there!

Maui

After a massive 30 minute flight, we arrived in Maui for 8 nights.  Straight away Maui had a very different feel to it - might sound a bit odd, but it didn't feel quite as Hawaiian.  It was much more commercialised than the Big Island and in many ways you kind of felt like you were in California.

We'd  looked into things to do on the island and the first on the list was to go humpback whale watching.  A few people had told us how good this is on Maui so when we got there we booked a couple of trips, with the first being nice and early - at sunrise!!

We didn't have to sail too far from the shoreline before we saw the whales - there they were spouting, breaching, diving and all those nice things some whales do.  It was pretty amazing to see so close up and was worth getting up very early for - that said we were less than impressed when the "captain" made the inspired decision to leave a couple of whales that were close to the boat, just so we could go somewhere quiet to drop a hydrophone.  Clearly he was an idiot.

Anyway, our second trip was better than the first.  We spotted  many more whales and it was made even more special by 3 whales consecutively breaching right in front of the boat.  It was quite spectacular seeing these massive animals forcing themselves out of the water and doing it so gracefully.

Fin slapping

Breaching

We also shared the boat with the whitest person we've ever seen - now I know it's sun cream that's made him so white but even so.  It kept Rob amused and I know we shouldn't laugh, but seriously check him out!

Next came a trip along the 'Road to Hana'.  This is one of the "must do's" in Maui, so we thought we should.  The road itself is reported to be extremely narrow and gnarly, so we were expecting something pretty extreme.  It wasn't at all - to be honest it wasn't as narrow as a road we'd driven the previous day and similar to a rural road back home - all in all, a bit disappointing really.

Heading to the red sand beach - on the Road to Hana

The road has a lot of one lane bridges and stop points to view the numerous waterfalls, but not much more than that really.  The town of Hana itself isn't anything to shout about, but we continued through to Haleakala National Park where we saw the seven sacred pools that lead down to the ocean.  This was a pretty stunning view.

One lane bridge

7 sacred pools - but you can't see them all!

On our third morning of getting up at stupid o'clock, we drove for about 90 minutes up a dormant volcano called Haleakala to see the sunrise.  It's not often we'd say this, but on this occasion a 3:30am start was totally worth it.  We got to about 10,000 feet above sea level and were nicely above the clouds ready for something amazing.

We got to see a sunrise like we've never seen before - it was without doubt the best sunrise we'd ever witnessed, simply beautiful.  What made it even more memorable was the temperature - even with four layers on it was absolutely freezing.  We thought we would get frostbite is Hawaii - now that would be weird!

As well as all this good stuff, we managed to squeeze in some visits to some of the golden sandy beaches that Maui has to offer for a bit of snorkelling and just to relax.  One of our favourites was called Ul'ua and we went there a few evenings and just watched the sunset whilst watching the whales spouting on the horizon.  Nice.

So that was our Maui experience.  It was good but, but we didn't enjoy it as much as the Big Island.  This maybe because it was a bit more commercial and it seems to have lost some of the Hawaiian feel or possibly it was just less of our thing - who knows.  All we do know that it was a nice warm place to spend a few weeks of winter!

Keawalai church

Iao State Park

Anyhoo, onto Oahu next - the home of Honolulu and Waikiki as well as the big surfing waves on the north shore... Will we ride them?  I doubt it, we'd probably drown!

Aloha!

Yep, we know, it's been well over a month since we did any update, so we have some catching up to do! Here is the first of the Hawaiian islands we visited.

We arrived in Hawaii on the 5th February after an epic journey of 3 separate flights from Australia - never again!  As we went through a load of time zones, we went back 10 hours so we actually arrived in Hawaii before we left!  Weird huh!

So, first stop is the so called "Big Island".  We weren't greeted by the hula girls bearing leis as you see in the movies much to Rob's disappointment! But we were greeted by the sunshine and welcoming faces - it felt different already.

Black Sand Beach - can you spot the nude snorkelers!

We spent a bit longer on the Big Island than we originally planned as there was plenty to do and such a variety of things to see.  As we were booking most things at the last minute and accommodation was a bit hard to come by (its the busiest time there), we found ourselves zig-zagging across the island to do stuff.  We started on the east coast in a place called Captain Cook (yep, its named after the legendary English explorer - its where he died actually).  Turns out we did our best to follow in his footsteps on one of the days as we took a really steep hike and foolishly ran out of water on a very hot day - learnt from that one!  Not quite as bad as the older English guy though - he had to be airlifted from the hiking path - all very dramatic!  We did manage to see the Captain Cook Memorial though which was the purpose of hike ...

We also took a look at a funky Hawaiian style church - it was pretty neat and had been decorated in a typical Hawaii colours, so made a change.

The drive over to the west side of the island was nice enough - we saw some humpback whales spouting and breaching in the distance and stopped at a few nice places on the way, with the pick of the bunch being at Pololu, a beautiful lookout....

We arrived in Pahoa to visit the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park where we got to see the Kilauea Volcano erupting, sadly it was a bit cloudy in the evening so the view wasn't as clear as it could have been, but it was still pretty amazing to be so close to such an event.

We heard the locals talking about hiking out on the lava fields to see the active lava flow - as that's one of the things we wanted to see we decided to take the hike. We met up with a polish couple and wandered out there together, it was amazing - we got to see lava oozing down the rocks and into the ocean, popping and cracking as it went, not something you get to see everyday.  The lava beds themselves are pretty spectacular it's quite unbelievable that plants, fruit and many other things continue to grow here, also that people have their homes so close to the volcano and their landscape is entirely a lava field.

We tried out the snorkelling and it was excellent - the water was so clear and we got to see loads of colourful hawaiian reef fish, some came right up to our goggles and took a look inside - don't think they liked what they saw as they moved on quite quickly!  Our second snorkelling expedition was a bit rocky and rough so we got tossed about by the ocean, we managed to scrape our skin against the coral whilst the ocean was throwing us around.  Rob managed to get some sea urchin spines stuck in his little toe - great fun removing them!  We also got to see some Green Turtles too.....

Something we talked about doing before we got here was night snorkelling with Manta Rays, it did sound pretty special - scary getting into the dark open ocean but hey it's something you may only do once in a lifetime so we did it, and yep it was pretty special.  You basically float about and wait for the oceans gentle giants to appear and appear they did, so graceful and swimming so close to you it almost felt like they were going to touch you.  We have got a video clip of what we saw but blogger won't let us upload it - it is on Facebook though.

We took a trip up to the summit of Mauna Kea (a volcano around 14,000 ft above sea level which hosts a number of astronomical observatories), we got to see the sunset and had a tour of the stars, the stars here are really visible due to the clear skies and we saw parts of constellations that we never knew existed.

On our last full day we hiked out to the active lava flow again, this time with a Hawaiian guide so that we could see the sunset and the lava flowing as it got dark.  It was amazing, like a lava waterfall - a very memorable hike.  The dark walk walk across the lava field was interesting and it was amazing how the guide knew his way in the complete and total darkness.

We have really enjoyed our time on the Big Island, it's been very different to what we expected, the people are really friendly and we believe we will return someday and explore some more, as there is a lot more to see.

Next stop Maui - sounds interesting too and a bit more popular with tourists than the big island so we shall see....