Today started off not too bad. Breakfast was beyond yummy and all three off us enjoyed a relaxing take-it-easy kind of morning. It was hard to get out of bed by 8:30 for breaky (hey, we are on holidays!), especially when it was all toasty warm in our beds.
Today was Kyoto day, so we set off later this morning for what we were hoping to be another action-packed day in Japan. Alas, it was not meant to be...
Firstly, as we were trundling, yes, trundling... - there are three types of general commuter trains in Japan...the Local (stops at every station along the way and takes forever to get to your destination), the Rapid - haha, (which is marginally faster as only seems to stop at every 2nd station) and the Special Rapid train, which stops at only the main stations and seems to travel quite fast. This is aside from the bullet trains. Btw, we are taking the Haruka bullet train from Osaka Station to Kansai Airport in the morning (turns a 50 min Rapid Train journey into a 20 minute one)... I have one very happy and excited boy here at the moment...where was I???? Oh yes, we were trundling along on our (crap!!!) Local express train towards eventually Kyoto when I realised that although I had the camera (thanks Kylie - it is like you are here with us!) in its trusty place hanging off my belt, I went to take a photo and realised that, dang, I had left the camera battery still in it's charger back in the room! Blah. Well, I still had my (not connected because we are in Japan) iPhone, so I did manage to get a few photos to share, but not a good sign for the day.
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| Looking down the escalators |
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| View out over Osaka
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| On top of the world!!! |
After we took in this marvellous view, we headed to the Tourist information centre (this train station is amazing, complete with upmarket hotel, many shops, restaurants and even a heli-pad!). Once we got the directions to catch the bus up to the Handicraft Centre, I asked where I could also get some money out. We were directed to a bank of International ATMs at the post office adjacent to the station. Pheonix was given a little origami frog by a man from another counter, and we were on our way!
We found the ATMs without much trouble and thats where the fun and games began...we tried to take out 10000 yen from our pre-loaded ANZ TravelCard. No success!!! We tried another ATM, and the docket kept saying card invalid :-(
So we found a public phone and tried to call the number on the back of the TravelCard. I wasn't getting through on the phone so we headed back to the Tourist Info Centre and after about 20 mins of the man tapping on a screen and referring to many books, we finally had the prefix numbers for calling out of Japan. So back to the phone we trooped. Well, the phone accepted 100yen coins (worth about $1.80 each, roughly). So I put in about 6 of these coins and was finally talking to someone who introduced himself Ranoosh(?) after going through an interminable list of automated menu options. I started to tell him about the problem, when the phone suddenly went dead! Oops...need more yen! So Pheonix went into a department store right next to where the phone was (I could wave at the servers through the glass) and changed some money for us.
Take two...I get back on the phone to Ranoosh, and he tells me perhaps I need to reset my pin and that he would put me back to the automated menu. I was saying thank you and goodbye to him before being put through, when Sequoia promptly pushed the lever to hang the call up. I went absolutely ballistic!!! She thought the call was finished and was 'helping' by hanging up the phone before the next 100yen coin dropped down (by this point, I had spent over $A35 in 100yen coins). Japanese people are VERY reserved and here I was yelling 'Why did you do that?????' at my daughter and I'm sure my head spun around on my shoulders a couple of times. The server in the department store ran out and started giving lollies to my children, probably because she felt sorry for them for having a completely mental mother!!!! I can laugh now, but at the time I just wanted access to my money!
Well, I called back and did the pin change, which didnt make any difference, still no yen.. I had originally taken what I hoped would be enough cash for our Japan visit, believing that if I did want to access a bit more, I could do so without much trouble. Transport is soooo expensive in Japan (it was $60 for the return train trip for the 3 of us to Kyoto today, so I was going to need that top-up).
By this time we were watching our bus leave the depot beside us and we would now not make the handicraft session we had booked and had been looking forward to. The kids ended up having placatory hotdogs and donuts (and a salad sandwich and very strong coffee for me!) before deciding we had had enough of Kyoto and headed back to Oji (but we did have a win here, and scored Special Rapid trains all the way back!)
Back in Oji, we tried our cards in the 7Eleven store on the other side of Oji station, after changing pins etc online.... still no joy! We saw one of the chefs wandering around and he told us we were definitely not the first travellers to have no access to our money here in Japan and that chances are that we would have no trouble once we hit Europe. I ended up just using a backup everyday card (which no doubt would have given me pathetic conversion rates and high conversion fees) to withdraw my 10000yen (lowest denomination avail in ATM, worth about $A180). Grrrrr.
Well, it was about dinner time by now, so we headed into the restaurant attached to the Guesthouse. It is a very cosy little bar with only a few tables.
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| View from our table |
Dinner was....strange. Delicious and all, they only had one main meal on the menu, some beef ragoul thingy - the rest were all appetisers and pizza. Oh well, we ended up sharing a spicy sausage (literally a (yes, yummy) sausage sliced up, a small mushroom and cheese pizza (they only had single-serve size pizzas) and 2 potato croquettes.
The kids had a juice and I washed mine down with a much deserved baileys martini (veeeery nice). This meal came to about $60, which was by far the most expensive meal we've had a 'taste of' in Japan - our dinner last night was about $35 and we took leftovers with us! However, I am happy to report that I used my travelcard (just as a test) to pay for the meal and it was a success. We ended up going to the shopping centre across the road for a much more heartier and reasonably price dessert to fill the bits of our stomach that the meal definitely missed. (The icecream in Japan is amazing!!!) I can see why everyone here is so thin, (tiny portion sizes) but I wonder about health when vegetables aren't very common and there's a Mr Donut on every corner...
I believe I have mentioned there is another family from Cairns staying here at our Guesthouse as well. Michael and Gabrielle are over here with their kids touring a bit around Japan. I wanted to mention them here as Sequoia and Pheonix become quite friendly with the other kids and spent an enjoyable evening with them in the lounge tonight, which gave me plenty of time to pack and take inventory of our luggage ready for the morning.
Well, our day sure has been adventurous and tomorrow we are off to Germany to see Andrew, Rachel, Sophie and JJ (can't wait!!!!). We are all packed and our lovely hosts have made rice balls for us to have an early breakfast before we are off.
We have really loved being in Japan. The people have on the whole been gracious and gentle, we've done some fun exploring and eaten delicious food. We have a brief stop in Narita on our way back but the kids and I agree that we'd love to come back here again for a holiday and perhaps spend a couple of weeks. Maybe one day!
Yougando (where we are staying) has been incredible. Tomomi and Shingo have been awesome hosts and we have been very comfortable here. I would recommend anyone to stay here who is looking for a warm and welcoming traditional Japanese experience. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of Tomomi and she had already left for the day by the time we got back from Kyoto. However, here is a photo of Shingo, who also took very good care of us...
I'm off to sleep now... looong day tomorrow!
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