Tuesday 29 April 2014

Touring at last!

28/4/14
We heard at 3 pm that the vehicle had been cleared by customs -no taxes, no duty! But the car could not be released until the bill was paid! This had to be paid to the Australian agent, and we couldn't do it ourselves because of bank procedures. Luckily Emma came to the rescue again, and bill was paid within minutes, and we had the receipt very quickly. But could we wait until 30th to pick it up, because the next couple of days are public holidays? Answer? -NO WAY!

We got ourselves over there, threw everything into the car. Customs came and gave us the carnet back, and the shipping agent had a fork-lift standing by to put the tent back on the roof. With only two of the bolts in the tent we drove out of the shipping yard, just across the road and finished the job of attaching the tent, allowing the workers to move on. 

First priority was to find a service station to get fuel. At the first intersection Joe ran through a red light! But luckily, since it was after knock off time everyone was gone from the industrial area, and nobody saw us! We found the service station easily, then after one wrong turn found the highway. 3 Toll gates later and we were well put of a Osaka. We then took an exit and found ourselves on a minor road, in mountainous country, and in the rain. Joe saw a symbol which looked a bit like the rest area signs at home. We pulled in and it was truck rest area! It was right on a busy (albeit minor) road, but we were staying put! We put the roof down to block put the noise and went to sleep. 

In the morning a grocery store had set up next to us, with all sorts of vegetables. We stocked up and off we went again. 

Pretty soon we were really in the mountains. YAY! And the scenery that unfolded was everything we wanted to find! 





Yep! We really have the Earthcruiser in Japan! 





29/4/14

We "camped" in a parking lot near an onsen. We parked next to a Campervan! It was similar to a lot of motorhomes in Australia, and was owned by a Japanese couple who had been camping for 4 months. Language problems prevented us finding out too much about them or their travels, but they had a good look over our vehicle, and exclamations and gestures made it pretty clear what they thought!

We also met a group of young Americans who were backpacking/walking the pilgrim trail. They were excited by our vehicle. They declared us their "travel heroes"! We haven't been anyone's heroes for awhile so that made our day! 

It seems clear that camping in Japan is going to be easy, with plenty of places to camp in beautiful surroundings, and camping in parking areas in an emergency is quite OK by the authorities (so far anyway). I think it is going to be all we had hoped for.  :)







Sunday 27 April 2014

Customs, unpacking the Earthcruiser, and Koya-San.

K25/4/14
Today is the day of unpacking the Earthcruiser from its container, and then unpacking everything from the Earthcruiser! 

Customs officers were waiting when we arrived at the shipyard storage area. They spoke very little English. But they busily took photos through the process. We had the impression this was a new experience for them! 

The container was on a truck, so ramps were put in place. After removing the straps a slightly built Japanese man crawled underneath, and up and over into the truck, then into the camper. He switched the batteries on, and then she started perfectly. 



He backed her down the ramp and we were greatly relieved. There is a scratch on the drivers side mirror mount, from when she was put into the container in Brisbane, and no other damage! 




Then came the unpacking. Everything was taken out, although they did not make us take the bedding out. All the contents were laid out beside the truck, and our packing list was amended by the shipping company agents. 




Customs did drug swabs all over the vehicle, looked in various drawers and then went. Apparently they will inspect the amended list and apply whatever taxes they think appropriate.

We were finished by midday, which was a good thing because we were booked into Koya-San
This booking was made a month ago, in the futile expectation that we would be on the road a few days ago! So instead of driving into the mountains we took the train.

Koya-San is a temple area in the mountains SE of Osaka. It was established 1000 years ago! In fact 2015 will be the 1200th anniversary of the establishment of Koyasan. That is antiquity that impresses me! It is the headquarters of a sect of Budhism. There are many temples here, and 50 or so of them provide lodgings for visitors. 

Since the monks are vegan the food served is completely animal/cruelty free! It's heaven for vegans! 



The cuisine is called Shojin Ryori Kaiseki -Budhist cuisine high style. (The "Kaiseki" means "fine dining, multiple courses" -or something similar. ) From memory there was cold roasted potato and carrot and eggplant in a sauce, kelp, ginger root, cognac root sliced to look like fish, with a sweet sauce, and with round balls which look like fish roe but weren't, a jelly like tofu with wasabi. In the pot was silken tofu boiling (there was a flame under the pot) in a vegetarian miso. Delicious. There were 5 fava beans in a sweet sauce. There were grapes, and two cherry tomatoes which had been peeled and marinated in a very slightly sweet sauce. There was also tofu skin ( the skin that forms when soy milk is boiled). There was pickled radish. Of course there was rice and green tea. 


It is also very beautiful here, with the cherry blossoms not yet finished, and traditional looking temples. 




When we finished dinner we found our room transformed into a bed room. Since it gets quite cold up here, and the temples are not heated, they have found a solution to keep your feet warm in bed! 


That lump at the foot of the bed is a table with an infrared light under it. So we can both have our feet in there keeping warm! Ingenious eh? 

Koya-San is certainly about temples. They were everywhere.






I don't know what this fellow was about but he was hanging in our room in the temple at Koya-San! Some similarity to some Xtian mythology?

And lastly, I can't resist some cherry blossom photos....




The blossoms are starting to finish at KoyaSan, and this is because the leaves are starting to appear, giving the trees a brownish tinge. I think this is also beautiful! 


Tomorrow -more beaurocracy and hopefully we will be starting the next phase of our trip. We have bought a wi-Fi mobile hot spot, so I should be able to continue uploading blogs and receiving emails, albeit a little less often probably. 

It is with a little trepidation that we approach this next leg. We can see that it will not be like camping in Australia. There is very little wilderness. There are huge sprawling built up areas. Country towns are like cities in Australia. And all of the road signs are in Japanese! We do have an off-line map, with Japanese and English, and our GPS location, so that should help a lot. 

Our plan is to immediately get onto a freeway OUT of the city. That means Sout East into Wakayama prefecture. Wish us luck! I'll let you know how it goes ........

















Monday 21 April 2014

Osaka and the retrieval of the Earth Cruiser. (Part one)

21/4/14
We are in our hotel in Osaka, on the port, right next to the aquarium.





The aquarium is awesome, with a 3 story tank. The huge aquarium even has a  whale shark -albeit a smallish one. We estimated it is about 3.5 meters long. The aquarium features cold water fish and animals, such as sea otter, penguins, dolphins, seals, giant spider crabs. It also has some tropical things such as capebara and sloths, and a monkey. We spent an interesting afternoon there whilst awaiting contact from the shipping agent.

The shipping agent email eventually came, informing us that the ship is arriving TOMORROW! 

But there is paper work to be done! We apparently needed to declare that we had "unaccompanied goods" when we came through customs at the airport! If not we may need to pay import duties and tax on everything that is not on the carnet! We have to make a "packing list" with EVERYTHING (including toilet paper) listed, along with its value! What a headache! We would like to have known about this before we left home! 

We did in fact ask customs at the airport whether we needed to declare any unaccompanied goods. We showed them a picture of the vehicle and they asked if we had a carnet. They then told us to tick "no" on that form.....

The shipping agent is going to explain the situation and try to get us out of trouble. 

We also have to have our carnet approved by the Japan Automobile Association. It is not clear whether this is to be done before or after the customs clearance is obtained. 

So the next few days will be spent dealing with beaurocracy - with the added language difficulties of being in Japan! Oh fabulous! 

22/4/14
We need to get the Automobile Association clearance of our carnet BEFORE the vehicle can be unpacked, but AFTER we have compulsory insurance. No -new information! We need to get the Automobile Association documents BEFORE we can get the insurance.

We spent an hour each way on multiple trains getting the documentation we need from the Automobile Association (JAF). We also got a request from the shipping agent to say how many clothes we had in the car (?) and to put a value on them. A value on pillows, sheets, mosquito coils..... 

And then we heard that they want everything unpacked into boxes. They will then tick everything off against our packing list. They say we should have declared unaccompanied goods at the airport, and they will not waive the requirement. Tax and duty will have to be paid on all unaccompanied goods! 

There was a bright moment in the day though.... We saw OUR SHIP come into part. She sailed right past our hotel window! Our car is in one of those red containers! 


23/4/14
Not much to do today, except fill out a few forms. So we went sight seeing in Osaka.
Dotombori Street... Notice the big puffer fish half way down the street -advertising a fugu (puffer fish) resturaunt.


And here they are awaiting their fate! 


Here is the window display of another eatery. That's nine kinds of raw seafood for about $50.



This octopus was advertising an octopus resturaunt. Steam comes out of his ears, his eyes flash and his tentacles move! 


This is an arcade nearby. It is LONG and crowed with people, even on a week day. It is lined with boutiques, department stores (Diamaru) etc. 


There are pinball arcades everywhere, and the sound of the balls dropping is deafening. I kid you not, my phone measured the roar at 90 decibels peaking at 100db. The staff in there must be deaf by now! 


That is just one of approximately 10 lanes in the room! 

And lastly, Osaka station -these photos don't do justice to the huge mass of humanity passing through here every minute. It is all marble, immaculately clean and remarkably quiet. It looks more like a foyer of the Hilton than a railway station. 



24/4/14
We are having a quiet day in the hotel today catching up on bills, planning the first phase of the car trip.  
Nice. 









Sunday 20 April 2014

Temples and gardens -Kyoto

20 April 2014
For the last few days we have been in Kyoto, first at Otsu and now at Hanazono. We have been touring temples and gardens. 



I won't bore you with all of the temples, or even all of the gardens, but in my view it is the gardens that are worth the visit. The temples and castles are very old,so they are worth seeing just for the antiquity of them, but the gardens are true woks of art, and awe. 









This could be the Vegan mascot! 


I needed drink after all of that walking!

I could go on and on with photos of beautiful gardens, but the other pleasure of this part of a Japan is the vegetarian ( =vegan in Japan, almost) resturaunts. Take a look at the meals we are getting...


Sake, served hot, is totally different to any sake we have had in Austealia. It is quite like a spirit, and quite flavourful! 


This is the skin from the surface of boiled soy milk, served in a broth.


All vegan! Some variations of tofu, and some wheat based, pickled vegies, boiled vegies, various sauces and dips, seaweed, miso soup. 

The vegetarian influence of the Budhist temples has resulted in resturaunts that only serve Shojin Rhyori -Budhist cuisine. Suits us!