Riding The Japanese Rails
By Lothar. Filed in Japan |
Our first trip outside Tokyo started at Narita Airport on May 11th. We took the JR ( Japanese Railways) train to Tokyo Station and managed not to get lost in this multi-level, huge train station. The Shinkansen bullet train took us in 4 hours to Okayama, where we changed trains to Matsuyama, about 6oo miles southwest of Tokyo on the island of Shikoku.
The train conductor came through our car every so often, and each time turned around to take off his cap and bow to all the passengers, before going to the next car. In Matsuyama, streetcar # 5 took us to our hotel Patio Dogo, across the street from Dogo Onsen Spa. We had to use all our gesticulating skills to explain where we wanted to go.
Next, it was time to forage for dinner. We found the ” Dogo Beer ” restaurant plus brewery. We took off our shoes, as always when entering a house, and sat on the tatami mats on the floor. I realized that I was able to sit ” Indian style”
( Schneidersitz) with my knees down on the floor, but Gabi could not. I guess we are built differently ! Otherwise,nothing wrong with her built ! We ended up eating fried chicken skins, chicken stomach, heart and some other stuff the waitress could not explain to us. Where is a TGIF or Outback when we need one.
After dinner it took us a few minutes to get the blood circulation back in our legs and we walked rather stiffly to our hotel.
We desperately needed a hot spa now ( see Gabi`s post ).