At a meeting of the Makara Peak Supporters a decade or so ago, I recall someone speaking against excessive improvement of the tracks "we'll end up making them fit for mobility scooters". It got a laugh of course - mobility scooters were the epitome of decrepitude that fit clean living mountain bikers would never descend to using. Mobility scooters are for getting from your rest home to bingo, not for adventure.
So it was with mixed feelings that I faced the fact that even my eBike was no longer a solution for my cancer related fatigue, and at times I was going to need a mobility scooter to get around. It felt a bit better to think of a mobility scooter as really just an eBike with a few more wheels: a three (or four) wheeled eBike.
Having overcome that hangup, I needed to decide what sort of scooter to get. Broadly, mobility scooters fall into three classes:
full size scooters that weigh around 50kg, are powerful and stable, but are difficult to transport so essentially restrict you to the area around your home.
portable or "Boot" scooters that are still heavy, but can be disassembled and carried in the boot of a car.
light foldable scooters weighing around 15kg that can be taken on public transport including aircraft.
I'd tried a full size scooter courtesy of WCC's mobility scheme, which places full size mobility scooters at locations around Wellington, including the waterfront, the Botanic Gardens, and Zealandia. My friend Neil has been a mobility scooter user for many years, and advocates for adopting them sooner rather than later. I'd accompanied him on a few adventures on his full size scooter, but there was the disadvantage that it wasn't that easy to transport - we'd needed a trailer to get it out to the Miramar Peninsula for a run around the Great Harbour Way. But full size scooters are very stable and powerful - the Zealandia one got up a steep rutted single track to the bridge.
Neil breezes along the GHW on his full size mobility scooter
On a visit to the Mobility Centre in Epuni, I rented a Pride Go-Go boot scooter for a week. As advertised, it disassembled into five components, although the 15kg battery was heavy enough that I was banned from attempting to lift it into the back of our station wagon. I was able to explore the south coast, and the valley track through Otari Wilton's Bush. The small wheels meant that it coped with gravel paths, but only just.
Pride Go-Go boot scooter on the South Coast
My challenge for a mobility scooter is living up Durham St, which reaches 15% at its steepest. The boot scooter motor cut out half way up, coming to an embarrassing dead stop. I learned that the other meaning of "boot scooter" is that it may need to be rebooted on steep slopes. Keeping to a slow speed going up the hill seemed to keep the motor happy, avoiding the cut out.
A chance meeting at a Pilates class put us in touch with the Wellington agent for TravelScoot, a lightweight foldable mobility scooter. Weighing 15kg, it can be packed into a medium size dufflebag, and checked through as airline luggage. The battery capacity of 275Wh is within the limits for airlines. Unfolded, it can travel on Wellington's buses, trains and ferries. The dimensions of the TravelScoot are just within MetLink's limits for the bus wheelchair space. A demo and a trial convinced me that this was the answer to my fatigue related mobility problems.
TravelScoot in train mobility area
TravelScoot in bus mobility area
Of course, there are compromises. The light weight means that the TravelScoot is less stable than a full sized scooter with its low centre of gravity, and I had to learn to shift my weight to cope with camber and slopes. I suspect the TravelScoot wouldn't be a good choice for someone who couldn't walk at all, or had poor coordination. It took a week or so to master Durham St. The 200W motor is in the back left wheel, so if there isn't enough weight on the front wheel, the motor takes over the steering, veering the scooter right. The solution is to sit forward, leaning over the handlebars, bringing new meaning to the phrase "the experience had me sitting on the edge of my seat". The sharp left turn at the bottom of the street is still a challenge - occasionally I get the approach angle wrong, and find myself pirouetting around as the motor gleefully takes control.
The small wheels mean the TravelScoot doesn't like gravel - anything more than a few millimeters and the driving wheel digs itself into the path in protest. So I have to be choosy about unsealed trails, and occasionally just get off and push through a problematic section.
Using the scooter makes me realise how compromised our Wellington footpaths are. Often there isn't a kerb cutout, and I have to lift the scooter over at intersections - fortunately the 15kg weight makes this manageable. Recycling bins and improperly parked cars often block the footpath.
It doesn't take much of a kerb to stop the TravelScoot's small wheels
So what sort of adventures can you do on a mobility scooter? One early trip was Hawkins hill. We parked by the windmill (the TravelScoot just needs the handlebar lowered to fit in the back of the Corolla station wagon) and followed the road up. On the steep section there were frequent stops - to collect pine cones for the BBQ, not for electromechanical reasons. The TravelScoot has a neat canvas luggage tray for carrying in-trip acquisitions.
On summit of Hawkins Hill
An advantage of the TravelScoot (and the Gold Card - thanks Winston) is being able to use different public transport modes. One day I scooted down to Queens Wharf on the waterfront, and got the East by West ferry to Days Bay. At Queens Wharf the scooter needed to be loaded by a ramp onto the top deck - the staff helped me negotiate the lip up onto the ramp. At low tide it isn't possible to use the ramp, but I'd checked the tide tables in advance.
TravelScoot joins the top deck crowd on the East by West Ferry
At Days Bay I scooted around to Eastbourne for coffee with my friend Neil. I could have got the ferry back, but the clement weather tempted me to follow the Great Harbour Way around the shore. There is a narrow shared path demarcated by safe hit posts, though I had to pay attention to avoid scootering onto the rocks below, and there was a background soundtrack of crunching mussel shells that had been dropped by seagulls onto the roadway. I crossed the Hutt River bridge, navigating around fisher folk trawling the outgoing tide, and along the Petone foreshore.
Selfie with East Coast Bays beach architecture
[eVehicle Digression. Lime eScooters are neatly lined up on footpaths around Hutt city. On a wide section of the esplanade, I was thinking of moving right, towards the road crossing, when a woman on a Lime scooter shot past on my right hand side at about 20km/hr, less than a metre from me. Despite this Christine Fletcher moment, when I came to cross the roadway I reflected that I had to be wary of cars running the red light in the same way I had to be wary of poorly operated scooters on the footpath. The technology isn't the problem, it's getting people to use it appropriately]
At Petone station I caught the train into Wellington - the guard offered to drop the ramp onto the platform, but it's easy to lift the TravelScoot across the gap, and put it into the wheelchair area, where its handy parking brake stops it from heading down the aisle and creating mayhem. The battery charge was getting low, so from the station I caught a bus to Aro Street. The advertised range of the TravelScoot is 19km, so it wasn't a surprise when half way up Durham St, at 20km of travel, the motor cut out. A combination of pushing, and reviving the battery for short spurts, saw me home.
When Wellington's usual breeze reaches strengths that less hardy cities might call "gale", the sheltered Korokoro stream trail is a natural choice for an adventure. Would the TravelScoot be up to it? We parked at the end of Cornish St, lifted the scooter up and down the steps on the footbridge, and set off. Fortunately the gravel is generally well packed and I'd learned to track the left wheel through the part of the path that offered the best grip. Some narrow sections, and occasional steep camber, threatened to tip me into the blackberry bushes lining the creek, but Marg followed behind ready to intervene if the inside wheel looked to be lifting off (this prevented a repeat of one of our son Martin's early mountain biking experiences, when he made an involuntary detour into the creek here. Which might be why he decided to follow less risky pursuits such as off-piste snowboarding). We made it around the bend with rockfall notices suggesting we didn't tarry, but halted when, about 1.5km in, the track takes a steep climb over a bluff. It was a good trip even though the outer wheel was occasionally delicately balanced on the edge of the trail.
TravelScoot on Korokoro stream, just past the rockfall area
When the new Wainuiomata hill shared path opened, I took the train to Woburn and tried the shared path on the scooter. When path is complete to Wainuiomata, there'll be a good train/bus/scooter adventure here.
TravelScoot at top of Wainuiomata shared path
So what's the verdict on mobility scooters? It's certainly been the answer for my cancer related fatigue, although this has now improved to the point where on my weekly drug cycle I get a couple of days of eBiking, a day of watching Netflix, and a few days of scootering. Around town it's nice always having a seat, and being able to scoot around stores if it's not too crowded. A bell is essential to alert slower moving pedestrians, but people are tolerant of mobility scooters in a way that perhaps they aren't of bikes, skateboards or kick scooters. I find that the gentle 6km/hr gives me time to look around me that I don't have on a bike. So if age and decrepitude is putting you off the single track trails of your yoof, consider the mobility scooter solution sooner rather than later.
A journalist, an architect, and an opera singer walked into a Weinkeller...
It seemed like a good opening line, and the roles matched respectively our daughter, son and daughter in law. But I can't think of a good punchline so we'll just have to go with what (more or less) actually happened.
Martin had done a train trip through the UNESCO heritage section of the Rhein, so when we were discussing things to do on our family catch up visit to Europe, the Rheinradveg, part of Eurovelo 15, was the obvious choice. We met up in Koblenz, where Martin had organised to rent bikes from Fahradhaus Zangmeister. At first we were a bit apprehensive. The Zangmeister seemed to be a German version of Bernard from Black Books, peremptorily ordering a group without bookings to simply go away. However "Bernard" soon had us set up on four good solid utility bikes, and a Pedelec for me, and we were on our way.
"Bernard" does a last minute road check on Imogen's bike
The plan was to take a train to Mainz, then bike back (slightly downhill!) to Koblenz over 3 days. Deutsche Bahn is generous about carrying bikes - generally about 10 bikes per unit.
Start of the adventure - waiting to board the train at Koblenz
Our issue the first day, though, was that Germany was enduring a "Sahara Summer"with temperatures in the mid 30s Celsius.
Normally we'd make an early start, to avoid the heat. But that first day we weren't biking until 1pm and we biked from one shade spot to another. However the Rhein is "swimmable", if not by NZ standards, so we took every chance to paddle beneath centuries old castles.
Martin and Selina cool off
Many of the castles, like this one, had an interesting feature to enable medieval indoor-outdoor flow.
Recalcitrant constituents were dealt with indoors, then their remains transferred outdoors to a hanging basket as a warning to others.
Soon we'd made it to the ferry across the river to Rüdesheim, where Martin had booked us in the Hotel Post with lots of room for our bikes where the post horses had been stabled in centuries past. In the evening we took a delightful two seater cable car up over the vineyards to a view over the valley and back to Mainz.
Marg and Alastair on the cableway above Rüdesheim
Next morning we were away at a cooler time, along with much of the German cycling community.
The Rheinradveg is truly an example of "build it and they will come"
The Radveg took delightful detours through riverside allotments, with picturesque castle backgrounds.
On the river, cargo barges competed for space with impossibly long cruise boats (some with putting greens and swimming pools on the upper decks) and kayaks.
Kayaks and Cargo on the Rhein
We reached the Weinhaus Weiler Hotel at Oberwesel before the heat became unbearable. The 1552 building was comfortable, and close to the walking route along the city walls
The team plot an assault on Oberwesel Castle
The last day from Oberwesel to Koblenz was the longest, but easier with an early start to beat the heat, and the valley opened out once we'd passed the legendary Lorelei.
Marg and Selina rehydrate on the way to Koblenz
On schedule, we made it back to Koblenz and Deutsches Eck, the symbolic end of this section of the Rheinradveg.
Kaiser Wilhelm I, on the bronze horse, greets Selina, Marg, Alastair and Martin on iron velocipedes
We were greeted by the first Kaiser Wilhelm, noted for unifying Germany in the 1800s (and who, if he and his son Wilhelm II, had had their way, would have created the EU half a century ahead of schedule, saving everyone a lot of bother). It was time for that Weinkeller.
Next day we took the train one last time through the "Romantic Rhine" gorge to Mainz, and dispersed: in my case, home via Hong Kong and an encounter with a nasty dose of Influenza A. But that's another story...
The Genial Polynesian Host (GPH) was apologetic. "It's too windy - the whale watching boats aren't going out". But never mind, we had our folding Tern bikes, and it was a 12km ride to the Toafu lookout, which according to the guidebook "affords an expansive ocean view" out over the islands of the Vava'u group in Tonga where we'd gone to escape the Wellington winter. The lookout was just off the clearly marked main road to Longomapu - what could be simpler?
After the Guest House's usual excellent breakfast of pawpaw and bananas (plucked from the luxuriant gardens) with toast and scrambled egg, we headed off. On the causeway leading out of town we were attracted by fish swirling in the water. We'd learned not to bike anywhere without snorkeling gear, so soon we were checking out some of the best fish and coral we'd seen on the trip, to the bemusement of the locals driving over the causeway.
Fish off the Neiafu western causeway
Unlike the main island of Tongatapu, Vava'u is hilly, so we had a short climb to the dairy paddocks and taro gardens around Taoa, before descending to the hamlet of Tefisi where a town meeting was in progress with the smoke from the after meeting lunch Umu drifting over the traffic jam. We paused to admire the multicoloured church, which looked like it had been inspired by a visit to Disneyland.
Tefisi traffic jam
Tefisi Church
After Tefisi, the map was very clear - there was a minor road skirting the freshwater Lake Ano, but the main road to the lookout and Longomapu was higher up on the hillside. At the intersection, the road sign was also clear - a thick black arrow indicating the upper road was the main road. We congratulated ourselves on our navigational skills and not being tempted by the no doubt inferior minor lower road. But after a while doubt crept in. The seal disappeared, replaced by increasingly deep mud wallows of the sort that give quagmires a bad name. Jungle grew in from each side, narrowing the roadway. Well - maybe Longomapu wasn't THAT big, and maybe the main road wasn't that "main".
After some time, we came across a van parked by the road side pointed the other way. We were relieved that it appeared to have successfully made it's way there from Longomapu, but concerned that it also appeared to be abandoned. But we were past the point of no return, so pressed on, our clothing and bikes accumulating a geotechnical library of the local soil types. Eventually the mud wallows became fewer, and we reached the lookout turnoff, along with a number of people to exchange "Malo e Lelei" with and confirm that yes, we were on the way to the lookout. We climbed up onto the plateau, meeting a taxi laden with palm fronds, gingerly skirting the deep ruts in the road. On the plateau, among coconut trees and grazing cattle, we found a spot that yes, gave us an extensive view out over the islands.
Panorama from Toafu lookout
By this time we were peckish, and descended to Longomapu in the rather unrealistic hope of finding a cafe with long blacks and panini. It was school lunch break, and after a bit of prompting the students led us to the local hole in the wall shop where they purchased popsicles and instant noodles, consumed as snacks directly from the packet, but we restrained ourselves to chocolate biscuits. The sense of isolation was reduced by the appearance of a cheery Korean lady in the latest active wear who had walked and hitched from town.
Biking into Longomapu
Students, Longomapu
For the return trip, we decided to risk the minor road along the lake. In contrast to the "main road", this was sealed, and ran close enough to Lake Ano to let us wash off some of the accumulated mud.
Fishing boat, Lake Ano
Back at the Guest House, we related the day's adventures to the GPH. "Yes, you were on the main road" he said. "The OLD main road - the lower road is the NEW main road, it just hasn't been marked on the map yet!"
Marg and I prefer to plan our trips as we go, deciding on our destination each morning, and wandering into a likely looking hotel at the end of the day. In Tuscany some years ago, we started each day with the intention of riding to Sienna, but somehow always ended up in another interesting mountaintop town.
So I was concerned when, two weeks before we left for Japan, I found that guidebook advised "3 months before departure: book all your accommodation, particularly if you're travelling in Cherry Blossom season". And of course, we'd planned our trip to coincide with the Sakura, the iconic cherry blossoms that advance up the Japanese archipelago from late March to early May.
Ah well, we said. With the Japan Rail Pass, if we can't find somewhere to stay, we'll just hop on a train to somewhere that does. We did book a hotel for our arrival in Tokyo, gasping a bit when we realised that three nights in Tokyo at peak Sakura would cost almost the same as our entire 1970's OE.
Marg waits in a Kyoto supermarket queue, 1975
We'd visited Japan for a week in 1975, while we waited for a ship to take us to Nakhodka for the Trans Siberian Railway. We'd been very naive travelers then, on our first venture out of Godzone and trying to spin out our savings, staying in youth hostels, surviving on miso soup, and hitchhiking. Although Japan was in some ways familiar - it is a first world country after all - everything seemed to be done slightly differently. When we changed money, the bank tellers spurned the high tech electronic calculators on their desks for an abacus.
What was it going to be like in 2017? Would globalisation mean that Japan and New Zealand were more similar (would the sushi be as good as in Courtenay Place?). Could we get decent coffee? More importantly, would extended credit card limits mean we could be less concerned about the cost of travel?
Sakura
We arrived in Tokyo on 1 April, when Japan Meterological service's Sakura forecast announced the start of peak Sakura viewing. One of the recommended places was the Meguro Canal in Western Tokyo, so we headed there in the morning. It was lovely - the blossom laden branches drooped down over the picturesque canal, and we joined the crowds appreciating the Sakura on every conceivable device. At least we thought it was crowded, until we returned in the evening when the real crowds packed the surrounding streets, strolling under the special Sakura paper lanterns with glasses of hot wine and special Sakura champagne imported from South Australia.
Alastair and Marg, Meguro Canal
Sakura champagne, Meguro Canal
In the mean time we'd visited Yoyogi Park, where hectares of Hanami (Sakura viewing) parties were sandwiched between pink Sakura above and blue tarpaulins below. Not having a tarpaulin, we acquired some cardboard from the recycling, and picnicked on oyster dumplings and iced tea and watched the fun. It had started early - at dawn we'd seen a couple of people in hard hats staking their company flag on a choice Hanami spot in an inner city park. One particularly well equipped site had security guards, couches, and rows of slippers. Some had been organised by social media, with signs identifying their Facebook or Meetup group.
Dog in Sakura themed cart, Yoyogi Park
Virtual meets the real: Facebook hanami at Yoyogi Park
Sakura season is also a popular time to get married, starting your honeymoon on a rickshaw in traditional costume. Wedding photographers work hard to get the best Sakura themed bridal shot, sometimes trying a little too hard, like the one who dangled in a cherry tree while the bride lay down on a muddy riverside path in her expensive wedding dress, and the groom fended off passing cyclists.
Wedding couple, Kamakura
Kyoto cycle path
Selfies are as popular in Japan as elsewhere - on station platforms there are notices telling you to beware of getting electrocuted when your selfie stick gets caught in the overhead lines. It's not enough just to photograph Sakura, you need to have a selfie of yourself proving that you were actually there with the Sakura. On the Kyoto Philosophers Path we saw a chap who had moved on to the next level - with two selfie sticks he could take a selfie of himself taking a selfie.
Philosopher's path, Kyoto
In Kanazawa, the Sakura have their own TV programme
The one place where our "no reservations" policy failed was Yoshino, a hill town south of Osaka and one of the best places in Japan to view Sakura. We took a blossom decorated cabin on the ropeway up to the town, and started enquiring at Ryokan (inns), but it was clear that to stay we'd need to have booked months in advance. So we became day trippers, admiring the blossom surrounding the temple where monks were preparing a spring bonfire, before retreating down the train line to Nara when dusk fell.
Monks preparing bonfire, Yoshino
Eventually we travelled far enough north to get ahead of the Sakura Front, but that wasn't a problem - a booth in Hakone photo-shopped Sakura into our selfie.
Japan Rail
A Shinkansen is given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
The cost of travel was partly addressed by the Japan Rail Pass - for $700 each we got 3 weeks of unlimited travel on Japan Rail's network of trains and ferries, including most of the high speed Shinkansen trains. It was value for money - we covered about 6600km (almost as far as Auckland to Tokyo), which would have cost around $2300 without the pass. The efficiency and reach of Japan Rail means that it barely makes sense to use a private car or even fly, and with the Rail Pass we didn't have to worry too much about following an efficient route, and instead found interesting detours as Margaret mastered the Japan Rail Timetable
Marg checks that the signboard agrees with the Timetable
When we first left Tokyo it was a fine day so although we were heading an hour south to Kamakura, it seemed a pity not to hop on a Shinkansen that went past Mt Fuji to the west. The train was actually going to Nagoya, so in three hours we did the equivalent of going from Wellington to Waikanae via Tauranga in order to get a look at Ruapehu.
Fuji San from Shinkansen
It was worth taking a rail journey in order to enjoy a Bento box meal of delicious tit-bits, each in its own compartment, and available in a vast range at every station. At Tokyo choosing lunch took as long as the journey.
Bento
Major train stations were enormous - it's rumoured that 5% of tourists arriving by rail at Kyoto never find their way out of the station. "There weren't as many temples as I'd expected" a Kiwi backpacker said of Kyoto "but the ramen noodles on the 11th floor were delicious."
Japan Rail has a culture of staff pointing at the clock or timetable to confirm that the train is on time. The train driver has a list of checkpoints in front of them and at each checkpoint points to the list and to the clock to register that the train is on time. The guard at Niigata station had been studying Billy Bowden videos, and gave a brilliant display as she confirmed that the train had arrived on time, and dispatched it within microseconds of the scheduled time.
Platform guard, Niigata
Japan Rail also preserves the Japanese culture of bowing. Staff make a point of bowing whenever they enter or leave a carriage. Before a Shinkansen starts a run, a team of cleaners swarms aboard, and when all is ready, line up to bow to the waiting passengers.
Cleaning staff wait for an incoming Shinkansen
Shinkansen are only part of the joy of Japan rail travel. We had a leisurely day on the Resort Shirakami train from Akita to Aomori, following Honshu's north west coast, very like the pre-earthquake Kaikoura Coast. On particularly scenic sections the train slowed to let us take pictures. One of the stops was at Noshiro, famous for its basketball team, so a net had been set up on the platform so we could practice our skills under the eyes of a local coach, and the station staff lined up to farewell us. On the last stretch, traditional musicians gave us a concert in the observation car.
Station staff farewell us from Noshiro
On the Resort Shirakami
On the private Wakayama line we travelled on a cat themed train to Kishi, where some years ago a stray cat, Tama, was appointed stationmaster. Tama passed away in 2015 but her successor, NiTama, ensures the smooth running of the line from a glass enclosed lair. To ensure she doesn't suffer from overwork, she has Wednesdays and Thursdays off. As a marketing strategy it's worked - the train is crowded, and the station does a roaring trade in Tama memorabilia. Could Wellington's Metlink emulate this by appointing a kaka as honorary station master on the Johnsonville line?
Marg has an audience with NiTama
There's a special magic about sleeper trains - waking in the morning to see a new landscape passing by your window. But in Japan the shinkansen are so fast that overnight trips are becoming obsolete. We travelled back from Takamatsu to Tokyo on the last surviving overnight service, the Seto Sea where our compartment came with complimentary Yakuta dressing gowns.
From Takasaki to Minakami in the Japanese Alps, we were concerned that we'd chosen the wrong train. The service didn't appear on the regular timetable. The carriages were old and wood panelled, and unusually there was no romanji (western) script on the notices. Then clanking and puffing announced the arrival of the engine - a heritage 1940 model. As we steamed out of Takasaki, savouring the coal flavoured air, rail buffs with telephotos and tripods recorded our progress from every roadside vantage point. Gradually we worked out that this was a special service that runs only a few times a year, rated number 6 of "10 gorgeous steam locomotives in Japan", and fortunately covered by our rail pass.
Photo opportunity with the Minakami steam train
Of course the Japan Rail system isn't totally unfamiliar. From Hakodate Japan Rail exploits wormhole technology to provide a connection to Lower Hutt.
Departure board, Hakodate station
The Joy of small places
While Tokyo and Kyoto were impressive, we enjoyed getting to more out of the way places.
In Kamakura, really a seaside suburb of Tokyo, the woman at the information centre was delighted to hear where we came from "I've got good friends in Newtown, and really miss Wellington coffee". (Although we did find some excellent espressos, I decided that had WWII geopolitics worked out differently, and Japan been occupied by Italians, they'd have had better coffee.) She found us a place a the New Kamakura Hotel, a "Scenically Important Structure" close behind the station, where our room had won a TV redecoration contest being modelled on a Scandinavian theme using recycled materials. The hotel is associated with the writer Kanoko Okamoto, a Japanese Katherine Mansfield, who wrote her story The Dying Crane at the location.
The idea of a rail trip through Japan had been partly inspired by seeing Hirokazu Koreeda's Our Little Sisterwhere characters clank through Kamakura on the local train, the Enoshima Electric Railway, which also features in a children's picture book. In the evening we took the Enoshima out to the beach where fishers prepared their boats, and a local aviator prepared his powered hang glider for a sunset flight.
Enoshima train picture book
Kappa Tengoku Ryokan in Hakone Yumoto an hour or so west of Tokyo was very convenient to the station, and a good base for a day circuit of the Hakone area. We started on mountain railway that zig zagged up through forest, a bit like a grown up version of Barry Brickell's Driving Creek Railway, to Gora, where a Kelburn style cable car took us up to the first of two ropeways that traverse the mountain range. As it happens, the first ropeway had a bus replacement, But the second ropeway, starting from a location famous for its sulphur mine and black preserved eggs, swooped us down to Lake Ashi. Our fellow passengers included a delightful multicultural family: dad looked Caucasian and spoke with an American accent, mum looked Japanese but spoke home counties English, and the children swapped effortlessly between Japanese and English.
Ropeway to Lake Ashi
In theory Lake Ashi has a stunning view of Mt Fuji, but instead we had ethereal views of cloud wrapped mountains as we voyaged down the lake on a replica of HMS Victory, complete with cannon and a rather oriental looking Lord Nelson posing for selfies. At the end of the Lake we toured the restored Hakone Checkpoint. In the 1700s feudal lords had to leave their families as hostages in Edo, and the checkpoint ensured that noblewomen didn't sneak away from the Shogun's control. From here we walked for several hours on the old Tokaido Highway, overlooked by avenues of ancient cedars, and including a restored tea house where walkers clustered by warming stoves and sipped smoke flavoured tea. Eventually the ancient highway became a busy modern road and we hopped on a bus back to Hakone Yumoto to soak (separately) in the hillside rock pool baths above the Ryokan.
Lake Ashi ferry
Lookout, Hakone Checkpoint
Sign on the old Tokaido Highway
Getting into hot water
I've never quite acquired Marg's enthusiasm for long soaks in a hot bath, but I did learn to enjoy Japanese communal hot baths (onsen). Even city hotels had onsen, sometimes on the rooftop, and supplied yakuta (dressing gowns) to pad to and from the baths without the bother of having to put on clothes.
In the mountains north of Tokyo, after our adventure with the Minikami steam train, we got the bus to the isolated Takaragawa Onsen. The bus driver looked a bit concerned, and went off tapping kanji characters into his smartphone, returning to show us a question in English "You're staying up there, aren't you?". His was the last bus of the day, and he didn't want us to be stuck there.
Fortunately we had a booking at the rambling Onsen hotel. After settling in, we walked through the forest up the river gorge for a couple of kilometres, getting our shoes wet and muddy in the spring slush. At the hotel entrance we swapped shoes for the slippers that are de rigeur in Japanese houses - next morning the shoes were waiting for us, miraculously clean and dry. We changed into Yakuta, and crosssed the short bridge to the snow surrounded hot pools, which were in the open by a rushing alpine river. Unusually, the pools were mixed - women were issued with a mother Hubbard style bathing dress, while men scuttled between pools strategically holding a small towel. Like the other guests, we wore our Yakuta to the delicious buffet dinner (avoiding the bear soup). I suspect the dedicated onsen goer doesn't change back into ordinary clothes until it's time to check out.
Marg conforms to the dress code, Takaragawa Onsen
Onsen aren't just for humans. In Hakodate, a troop of Japanese snow monkeys have their own hot spring next to the botanical hothouse, and spend the winter soaking and occasionally throwing snowballs at each other.
Hakodate monkey onsen
The three finest views...
Great store is put on the three finest views in Japan, the "Nihon Sankei",We saw at least six of the three finest views. Every location agrees that theirs is one of the three finest, but differs about what the other two are.
One of the Nihon Sankei is the giant Torii gate in a bay on the holy island of Miyajima. Commoners had to access the island through the Torii gate, which appears to float on the water at high tide. The sanctity of the island is also endangered by birth and death - if you're near term in your pregnancy, or terminally ill, you're supposed to head to the mainland.
Torii gate, Miyajima
But the island has other attractions - two ropeways whisk you to the summit of Mt Misen with a spectacular view across the harbour to Hiroshima, and at the Daisyoin Temple lines of holy figures greet you wearing woolly hats and scarves.
Daisyoin Temple
Another Nihon Sankei is at the Risurin garden at Takamatsu. From a 10m hill (named Fuji San after its 3776m rival) you can look across a sculpted lake to the bush clad hills behind, and if you're lucky, a sampan will be punted across your view into the "golden third".
Nihon Sankei being photographed from Fuji San
Sampan racing for the Golden Third
Art island Naoshima
Until recently the island of Naoshima, on the Seto "inland sea" west of Osaka, was one of many based on fishing and a little farming. But then the Benesse Corporation decided it would be a good home for its art collection, meaning that now tourists are the main catch brought in from the sea each day. We'd bent our no reservation policy to book the last accommodation available on the Island - a caravan. This wasn't as down market as it sounded. The caravan was on the beach, a hundred metres from Kusama's iconic pumpkin, and a short stroll from the Benesse Gallery, one of several dotting the island. Among the artworks was Yanagi's World Ant Farm, a wall of national flags, each of them an ant farm so the insects contributed to the art work, modifying the vexillology with their tunnelling operations.
Kusama's Pumpkin, Naoshima
Over a day we walked across to Honmura, the main town with a network of small galleries and artworks, including James Turrell's faintly illuminated work that magically appears when your eyes accommodate to the dark room it's placed in.
We crossed the island passing Sakura groves and a giant ceramic rubbish bin. At the miniature Monet Garden beside the Chichu gallery a woman posed her soft toy bear, wearing his special Sakura outfit. The gallery itself, like the nearby Lee Ufan, is subtly embedded in the hillside, its multiple levels and large galleries entered through an unassuming slit in a concrete wall.
"Monet's Garden", Naoshima
Of course, by this stage an onsen was necessary to restore our tired limbs. Naoshima's onsen "I♥︎Yu" (Yu is japanese for "hot water") is itself an artwork complete with an elephant in the room.
Finding roots
In 1947, Marg's late father Mick served in Jayforce, New Zealand's contribution to the occupation of Japan. To a twenty year old from Timaru, Japan and its culture must have been an exciting but unsettling experience. They didn't know what to expect - after the bitter Pacific conflict, would the Japanese continue to resist? In the end the Japanese got on with rebuilding Japan, and the Kiwis' main challenge was combating boredom.
Mick in Japan, 1947
Jayforce was based at Yamaguchi, a provincial capital about the same size as Wellington, at the western end of the main island of Honshu. We took a train up the river valley to spend a day there. We borrowed bikes from the hotel and explored the north western side of the city where the base had been. The museum had a history section which understandably segued from the Samurai period to the modern technology era, missing WWII and the occupation. We explored a park with a striking five tier pagoda that appears in one of Mick's photos, and climbed the hill behind in an unsuccessful attempt to get a view. While I waited for Marg to return from bush bashing, I studied the map, finding an area marked "JGSDF". It dawned on me that this stood for "Japan Ground Self Defence Force" - in other words it was the army camp, and in about the same position as the camp in Mick's photos. We biked around, trying not to look like terrorists plotting a break in. Although much had changed since 1947 it was the same place. At the eastern side was a memorial to St. Francis Xavier, who'd stayed there in the 1500s, preferring it to Kyoto as a base for spreading Catholicism. The same memorial appeared in Mick's photo of the base.
Marg at the entrance to Camp Yamaguchi
Mick's photo of Rurikoji Pagoda 1947
Rurikoji Pagoda 2017
Yamaguchi still has a link with the wider Commonwealth - in the evening we ate at an African restaurant, run by a Ghanaian who came to his wife's home city after the Fukushima earthquake persuaded them that Tokyo wasn't a good place to live.
Narita Airport: farewelling tourists from Japan has now been automated
Return
A week or so after our return, we took the excellent Kapiti train service to Waikanae, however something jarred. The guard (without white gloves) checked our gold cards and headed through to the next carriage."He didn't bow!" whispered Marg.
