Day #13, April 13th: Matsuyama

Friday the 13th would be a giant travel day.  We would be going from Hakata on the island of Kyushu to Matsuyama on the island of Shikoku.  This meant the train would be traveling through an underwater tunnel and a long bridge.

Dennis took this photo of the Toyoko Inn bed.  It was one of the thinnest mattresses we saw, but perfectly comfortable.  I have no idea why American mattresses have to be so thick these days.

The dining area was very crowded at the Toyoko Inn, but we got downstairs early and found a table.

There was a lovely selection of breakfast yummies at the Matsuyama Toyoko Inn.

The efficiency of the Japanese Shinkansen bullet trains is really incredible to see.  Politeness is seen everywhere.

Here, train attendants bow in farewell to the people on the brand new train.

It amazed us that in a city of so many people, it is a rule of thumb that civility, courtesy and cleanliness should be displayed everywhere.

Diagrams at the train boarding area explained what trains stopped there.  This diagram shows that if there are 8 cars, this would be where you could find car #7.

We passed a castle that we wished we could see.  There are twelve original castles in Japan.  We saw three of them on this trip.

I have to say the best thing about these shinkansen trains are the bathrooms.  They were definitely space age and took care of ANY need you might have.

If you need to smoke, there was an enclosed area where you could lock yourself in and keep the rest of the train smoke free.

We stopped in Okayama, sadly switched trains, bought box lunches, stamped our travel journals and continued on.

That's right!   Now I'm having to wear a mask!

I really enjoyed the lunch on the not as fancy train, but couldn't take a nap because of the Sudafed I took.  Doggone it!  Everybody else napped comfortably.

Sigh...

Unlike the new shinkansen trains, this one had the squat toilet.  Thank goodness for the handholds!

And yes, Western style toilets are also available.

We passed by this boat dock.

I noticed that on trains and everywhere else, green tea seems to be the beverage of choice.  There's not a whole lot of sugared drinks being consumed.

It was fun to notice all the cherry blossom trees still fanning delicately across the mountain sides.

It was raining in Matsuyama when we arrived there.  Here is the famous Botchan train.

It was certainly a day when our luck did not run out.  Our two suitcases had arrived safely from Kumamoto.

Reorganized again.

Mom and I needed to rest so we sent Dennis and Art out by themselves.

Ummm... Did I say this was Friday the 13th?

They got lost and returned very late.

Here they are at the famous clock that Miyazaki used in his animated film, Spirited Away.

They got to see the famous Dogo Onsen but didn't go in since it was too late and they were supposed to bring back our dinner. 

It's not like Art to get confused by the train system but somehow the two of them went round and round the city until they found their way back to the hotel.

By the time they found some food and returned to the hotel, it was 7:00.

Mom thought it was rather funny...hilarious actually!  She must have been convinced that they were helpless without her.

I don't know where they got their energy, but Dennis and Art did the laundry after all that.

That night.... I was really sick and stayed up coughing until 3:00 AM.

Not good.

Day #16 Return to Hawaii

We're safely back in Hawaii and it's the weirdest feeling. We left Japan on Wednesday evening at 9:00 PM and returned to Hawaii on Wednesday morning at 8:40. Our Jalway flight was 6 hours and 20 minutes, arriving in Hawaii 20 minutes ahead of schedule.

I can hardly believe we were in Japan this morning... oh wait, it's actually yesterday morning.... oh never mind.

This was our last free Toyoko Inn breakfast. I wish I could eat like this every morning. This was the first morning they didn't serve rice balls. They served rice, just not musubi (flavored rice balls).

Tomorrow morning, I'm back to my usual oatmeal with cranberries.

After breakfast we talked to our son, Jon in New Mexico via Skype. Our daughter and granddaughter also called to wish us a safe flight. I had to smile when I heard Jon's parting words, "Talk to you again when you're state-side."

We left Toyoko Inn behind us and headed toward the train station. We had 6 carry-ons and 1 check-in luggage that we were pulling along. I kept counting our items at every stop. Thank goodness we had auntie to push mom.

Since we left Toyoko Inn at 9:45 AM and our train did not leave until noon, we had quite a bit of time to kill. Auntie was able to do some more "omiyage" (present) shopping with mom while we made use of the comfortable wheelchair.

Our next stop was to buy our bento (box lunch). There was such a huge selection we had the hardest time choosing. There were three kinds that I was ready to buy for myself. Not to worry... I controlled myself.

Auntie commented that eating three big meals with rice a day for more than two weeks was going to have us all gaining weight. I weighed myself when I returned to Hawaii. It was incredible! I lost 4 pounds.

There are very few overweight people in Japan. I think it's because they don't eat a whole lot of fried, fatty foods. A lot of their diet is mostly seafood, vegetables and soybeans cooked in myriad imaginative ways.

Once on the train, I could see that the day had turned cloudy, dark and rainy. Since we would no longer be outside, we were quite comfortable.

The Shinkansen or bullet train has very spacious seats and tons of leg room. We really made use of our 2 week JR train pass. You can only buy this pass if you are a visitor to the country.

And then it was time to break out our bento lunches. Yummmm... I'm going to miss these. We have something like it in Hawaii but it's doesn't seem quite as wonderful.

Oh yes! The sisters really enjoyed it.

I wish I could fall asleep as easily as these two. It would make the time go a lot faster. Oh wait, maybe they're doing their zazen (meditation)?

Our friend, Sam had asked if we could change our train schedule to meet him in Shinazawa. It worked out perfectly. Otherwise, we'd have had to spend more time at the Osaka station buying things we had no more hands to carry with.

Sam treated us to some scrumptious dessert and coffee. I know he kept up with my blog but we couldn't help gushing over all the things we'd seen in his country. Sam had helped us immeasurably with making all our reservations for the Shinkansen and travel information inside Japan.

The two hours with Sam sped by and he led us to the train assistant who took us to our next boarding platform. Sam gave us omiyages of the most delectable rice crackers we've ever tasted. Oh yes, we already ate some. We're going to ration them in the next few days.

The Japanese really are so incredible creative with their rice crackers and mochi (glutinous rice). It doesn't sound amazingly delicious but trust me, it is!

Back on the train, auntie and mom had fun reading the magazines that Sam had brought for them.

Very quickly, we arrived at Narita Airport (outside Tokyo). We kept our fingers crossed that our three bulging suitcases had arrived safely. Not a problem. I'm so amazed at how efficient their system is... and economical. How do they do this?

We started walking toward the Jalways check-in counter on the far side of the airport. Art saw the long line of people and started to rush toward it. A uniformed woman came over to us when she saw the wheelchair. She said she would take care of us. I had to call Art back.

Good grief! She handled everything efficiently, with kindness and courtesy. They took care of our suitcases, attaching handicapped tags to them and collected mom's wheelchair, She was given an airline wheelchair to use.

The next thing the sisters absolutely wanted to do was to call their sister and brother to thank them and say their farewells. We used the Japanese phone cards we kept with us since we didn't have a cellphone.

Listening to them, Art and I felt wonderful that we were able to do this.

I met someone from the Big Island at the airport waiting area. She said she was blown away with the kindness and politeness of the Japanese people. We were, too. She left ruefully saying, "I guess we have to go back to reality now."

The other nice thing about Japan... no tipping. No kidding. They are polite and kind because it's the right thing to do, not because they might be paid more.

I wondered about that. We're from the Aloha State. We're friendly, too. Well, we found out that it's not necessarily so all the time.

The flight had several movies to choose from. We got to see Avatar again, It's Complicated and the Sherlock Holmes movie. The time really went by quickly.

Back in Honolulu, I saw that what the Big Island woman said could be true. I'd filled out the immigration paper for all of us as one family. The passport person said quite testily, "How are you related? Do you all live in one house?"

On the other hand, we had an airport assistant help us along taking us to the front of lines to lead us through the maze of returning from a foreign country quickly. He showed us that our luggage had even been already collected for us and he took us out to the curb where my cousin and brother were waiting for us. They could hardly believe all the things we were carrying with us. I have to admit it was pretty amazing that we didn't lose anything.

We got back safely to find out that the water main had broken down the street! We've been without water now for 8 hours. Arrrghhhh!

Looking back on this trip, it's hard to believe that we wondered if we should cancel it when mom hurt her knee the Saturday night before the Monday morning we were scheduled to leave.

Busy day tomorrow. I'd better get to bed. It's almost midnight! Thanks for coming along with us, everybody. It made it that much more special that we were able to share this experience.