In and Around Tokyo

First the good news- we weren't served fish for breakfast after all! When the owners of our guest house made us a traditional Japanese breakfast, we were pleasantly surprised:

We had a hard boiled egg with a brownish skin (don't know how they do that), a type of pulled beef with onion and spices, broccoli (who in the world eats broccoli at 8 am!), asparagus tips, seaweed, potato, carrot, tomato, rice and Miso soup. It was delicious.

With basically no English in Japan on what the food is, I've decided to use scouts to try it before I eat:

Here, Cathy and our owner Tetsuo tried some street food that turned out to be chicken. There are a surprising number of street vendors here and the food is excellent and inexpensive. You just don't know what a lot of it is.

We're still trying to get our heads around the the train/ subway system. We bought a Japan Rail pass and the good news is that the bullet trains are just that, they go like hell:

You can also use this pass for Tokyo local transit but a bit different (think Go- Train using TTC tracks). The Japanese pronunciation is tough in trying to understand the name of streets and train stops so getting around has been a challenge.

But we're trying. We went to a town called Nikko with shrines dating back to the 16th century:

This shrine was built by the grandson of the first Shogun circa 16th century. Shoguns were the de facto rulers of the country.

We also took a bullet train to another small town called Hakone, known for their landscape and natural hot springs. Here you also get a stunning view of Mount Fuji:

December is fall weather in Japan and the foliage is in full colour: 

I now understand why Asians love coming to Canada- our colours are so much more vibrant. In Japan their fall is pretty but nothing compared to the brilliant reds and yellows and browns of a Canadian autumn.

A Tough Intro to Tokyo, Japan

When we decided to change our final plans during our journey to include Japan, we had to do some rather lengthy air flight arrangements to be as economical as possible. That included today when we flew from Christchurch New Zealand to Brisbane Australia, then to Singapore and on to Tokyo. It turned out to be 31 hours. We thought nothing of it other than it might take a toll on our system.

But arriving here, we had three surprises. The first one was failing Passport Control. We were detained in a special room and interrogated for over an hour. For whatever reason, they put us on a high-risk black list. According to these Japanese officials, they do an individual background check on people coming into the country. It's a combination of where we've been over the last while, where we're staying in Tokyo and confirmation we have exit flights out.

First they grilled us on where we're staying. We thought it was pretty straightforward- it's a homestay.com accommodation but during the interrogation we felt maybe not as good an idea as we thought? They feigned understanding of what homestay.com was until we were able to compare it to a guest house. They continued questioning exactly where we were staying. Through the questioning, I had visions of the owners being government spies and bringing us into an overthrow coup. When they were satisfied with that, they then asked why were we in Istanbul, Turkey and when? They were asking specifics of the reason why we were there (which was about 2 weeks prior to President Ergan's military coup attempt). The whole session was only an hour but it felt very weird and actually worrying at times. We were then let go.

If that wasn't uncomfortable enough, we next had to confront the rail and subway systems after not sleeping for more than a day and not understanding Japanese:

Don't bother counting- there are over 20 different subway/ train lines with some being both. Through this haze we also had to change trains and English is pretty non-existent. Just trying to figure out if we had enough money on our ticket was tough because you had to exit with sufficient funds. But we got to our destination on time.

So the owners are showing us around town and I'm quickly grasping the fact that there's a lot of raw fish stores. Did you know Japanese eat fish every day, including mornings?:

The owners are coming over tomorrow morning bringing with them a traditional Japanese breakfast. As I'm allergic to seafood and don't like fish, as the saying goes- "Houston, I think I have a problem".

The Lowdown on Sheep

Ever wonder the difference between a lamb and a sheep? And do you really believe there's such a thing as a black sheep? Ever wonder how a dog herds sheep? Or if it's painful for sheep to be sheared?  Well, hold your breath no more as we went to a sheep farm and have the low-down on everything sheepish!

The answer to the first question:

These are lambs, I kid you not! And when they are lambs, they are sheared twice the first year. After that, they become 'adult' sheep (we all knew that right?, that these little lambs turn into sheep after their 1st birthday?) and are sheared once a year. The shearing is done in New Zealand November through January.

The answer to the next question:

This fella is the real deal. It's a genetic thing and it happens in about 1 out of 1,000 (I think the odds are way more than that). In reality, even two 'white' sheep can produce a black one and in the old days, black wool was pretty worthless- hence the phrase 'black sheep in the family' as in no good for nothing.

Next, sheep dogs love their job:

 

Leo, the sheep dog here, can herd the sheep at his master's command by looking at the lead sheep and barking loudly or nipping- it scares the hell out of them! We watched him do this several times, down the hill and then back up. Sheep dogs apparently love doing this work.

As for getting fleeced (so to speak), how are they sheared? They use machine shears and they operate like barber haircutters. We watched and it doesn't hurt them at all:

They put the sheep on their rump which makes them almost immobile during the process: 

The above pic shows a comparison of the sheep sheared (he's the scared looking one in the back) versus ones not sheared so you get a sense of the amount of wool they produce. And once sheared, they need to be protected for a few days from sunburn, then they go back into the flock. 

Shearers can make good bucks. They are paid on a per sheep basis at $2- $3 each and more for merino sheep and they can average 300 sheep per day. 

Next up- our last country on our world journey- Japan

Driving Down to Queenstown New Zealand

We continue to be astounded by the scenery on the South Island of New Zealand as it is renowned for its mountains, lakes and glaciers. About two hours from Fox Glacier, you drive by Lake Wanaka nestled by majestic mountains:

There's a small parcel of land called 'the neck' separating this from another major lake, Hawea:

Years ago, these lakes were together and this 1 km stretch of land was built up over time. Driving down, you quickly realize that as there are only 1 million people on the South Island, there are not a lot of towns or villages interrupting the landscape. You also have to be careful with gas as they have signs saying 'no gas for 190 km'. Where we stopped overnight, there was only one store, one gas station and one hotel. But look at our view!

Travelling down to Queenstown, you drive through the mountains until it opens up to a plateau of farms:

Queenstown is small with only 14,000 people. It's a resort town but more than doubles in size with lodges and motels:

We took a day trip to Milford Sound, New Zealand's famous fiord. When we left Queenstown it was brilliant sunshine but the guide cautioned that it would be raining in Milford as it rains 190 days a year there. This fiord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides and cliffs. The deep sided rock faces go up to 2,200 metres (over 6,000 feet). When we got there, we couldn't see the tops of the higher rocks with the overcast but it was still surprisingly beautiful (the white dots at the base of the rocks are ferries): 

It started to rain hard when we were passing Copper Point where there are gale force, sometimes hurricane force winds (the Tasman Sea meets up with the Pacific). The captain said it would be a great experience to 'feel' the power of the wind and all on board were eager to do this until walking out:

I'm the idiot in the picture hanging on for dear life with winds of 75 km per hour (hurricane is 85 km). I got soaked- and to be honest- I'm surprised they even let anyone out on the deck with those winds.

Going back, we drove into gorgeous weather again:

This island is really quite remarkable in its grandeur and natural beauty.

Driving Down the South Island of New Zealand

People say that the south island of new Zealand is prettier than the north and so far, we must agree. Right from the time the ferry enters Cook Strait, you are in for a panoramic surprise:

As we started our journey down on the west side, we visited the Marlborough Region, home to dozens of major wineries:

Although this area is renowned for their white wine, Cathy tried the Pinot Noir and said it was the best she's ever had (which is quite interesting as she said that again the next vineyard too).

We drove to Punakaiki, best known for its Pancake Rocks and Blowholes: 

These lime rocks have been around for 35 million years and scientists still do not understand how the rocks formed into layers. Also, with the ocean waves crashing to shore, there are 'holes' in the rocks that create 'mist blowholes' and you hear a huge swooshing sound when the spray bursts out:

Another major difference from the north island is the mountain scenery versus the hills of northern New Zealand. We took a trek on Fox Glacier (I can't tell you how thrilled I am that I kept my hiking shoes) and the views are spectacular:

This part of New Zealand has the feeling of Whistler in B.C. Here though, the weather can change every 5 minutes from cloudless skies and brilliant sunshine to low lying clouds cutting off visibility of the mountain-tops. Here's a pic of Mount Cook at the start of our hike around Lake Matheson:

And here's a pic about an hour later:

In case you're wondering how much trekking we did today, it was around 16 km and I'm happier than a pig in shit being back in my room!

Wellington, New Zealand

The scenery is fantastic driving form Auckland to Wellington and the bottom part of the north island of New Zealand. There are miles of rolling hillside:

And of course, New Zealand is famous for their sheep and lamb:

Did you know there's about 8 sheep for every person living here? Yikes! Up until 30 years ago, sheep farming was the most important industry. But since then, dairy farming has earned more money and sheep numbers have fallen. The reason? You make more milking cows than selling lamb chops and wool. So now there's over 1 cow for every Kiwi living here! That's right, 5 million cows.

In Wellington there is a lookout on Mount Victoria that offers a spectacular view of the city:

This mountain was actually used in the first film of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Ring movies where the hobbits hide from the ring wraiths.

We also took in the museum exhibit of the Kiwis contribution during the First World War at Gallipoli. When we were in Turkey, we actually visited the site where so many died when the Allies tried to take over the Dardanelles Straits from the Turks who were fighting with Germany:

In WWI, ten percent of the population of 1.1 million served overseas, of which more than 18,000 died. That's almost one in five that enlisted and quite high percentage wise compared to the British, French and Canadians.

Tomorrow, we're taking the ferry across to the southern island of New Zealand. The terminal was damaged by Monday's earthquake but lucky for us it has been fixed.

Auckland, New Zealand

New Zealand is a country of 2 main islands (north and south), both marked by volcanoes and yes, privy to earthquakes! We were very fortunate to be on the north island, just outside Auckland when the two hit New Zealand today. Apart from curtains flapping, up here there was no damage.

The whole country has a population of only 4.5 million with Auckland having 1.5 million. It has a quaint feel, laid back compared to Australia:

One example can be seen with one of their 'major department' stores sprucing up for Christmas:

New Zealand is actually an island nation and made up of a lot of islands. We went over to Waiheke Island to do some wine-tasting and passed several islands along the way:

The wine- according to Cathy- is excellent as we visited 3 vineyards. I can say that the water is also excellent, although I really couldn't tell the difference from one vineyard to another!

Please ignore the sign she is holding especially the wording- she told me if I took this picture I'd get a real nice Christmas present under the tree and this is the ONLY reason it's in this blog!

There isn't a lot happening here except tourism and vineyards of which I'm sure we're going to explore a lot. What we have picked up is a general feeling of Kiwis (New Zealanders) feeling almost like a second cousin to Aussies- they explained it to us like the way America treats Canada! Quite interesting conversation and we'll see if this is felt in other parts of the country.