I have found that if I mention our vegetarian preference in the booking forms special requests section, the hosts go to quite a lot of trouble to have vege options available at breakfast. This morning we had the best breakfast yet with so many choises we couldn't try them all! NATO again, yam soup, slippery seaweed ( "slippery" seems to be a favourite texture for the Japanese, but we seem to be going off it!), roasted Barley tea, miso ( although this one had more in it than I bargained for including pippie shells....), tofu, steamed vegies, pickled vegies, roasted vegies, almond jelly, fruit and more!
Today is mainly a train trip but we have chosen the slow trains along the west coast and mountains. Again we are hoping to find the picturesque areas of Japan to revisit in the Earthcruiser.
This side of the north certainly does seem to have the beautiful scenery. There are more mountains, more agriculture, streams, beaches. There are far less people.
South of Akita there was some greenery appearing, and clumps of daffodils. People are preparing beds for rice and also home vegie patches.
Notice the haze in some of these pictures. There is smog in the air even in these country areas. It is apparently from China. I can't imagine what it is like over there!
And all the way there were mountains with snow not far away!
Even further south some of the rice paddies were flooded, and some cherry blossoms were appearing.
We met a Doctor on the train returning from a clinic in the north. He and joe had a vigorous discussion about the state of Japan's economy. He was also interested in the health care system in Australia. Apparently the elderly in Japan are being increasingly cared for in nursing home which are not well equipped to care for them. He also said that home ownership is rare in Japan.
Eventually after a number of train changes we arrived in the mountains. At last some really pretty scenery! But the smog haze is ever present.
And it true there is a light at the end of the tunnel! As we moved into the mountains the train went through very long tunnels.
No comments:
Post a Comment