Shionoe Onsen

Stephen and Sylvain at Shionoe Onsen.

Coming back to Japan after being in Scotland is always a little difficult. It's not just the jetlag that bites (although that is definitely a contributing factor), but the sense of having readjusted to your home life and having it suddenly snatched away from you again. Your friends and family that you love have suddenly disappeared. While I'm lucky enough to have travelled with Angie (which definitely helped the transition), it it can still be quite a challenge

I was worried that my first days back would be very uneventful and that it might get me down. Additionally, I'd missed all of the usual summer events and introductions to the new JETs in Kagawa (argh!), meaning I had a lot of catching up to do on the social scene.

The beautiful Shionoe Onsen village.

Luckily, I was invited on my very first weekend back to go to the Shionoe Onsen (by that lovely Canadian Stephen Branston and brand new Kagawa ALT Sylvain Fortin-McCuaig). Definitely a way to beat the post-home blues.

Beautiful Shionoe.

I recently spoke about my time at the Shionoe Firefly Festival in June, and how I had wanted to visit the onsen there but simply didn't have time on my previous visit. Luckily, this would be a great chance to experience Takamatsu's famous hot-spring villiage (which, if I'm honest, I'm amazed is still considered to be a part of Takamatsu since it's so far out from the city centre).

Getting picked up by Sylvain in his car near Stephen's home in Ayagawa, we first popped over to the nearby Aeon mall for the purpose of getting lunch (naturally, ramen noodles), before making the long drive up to Shionoe. Sylvain, another Canadian, had recently moved in to take over from departing JET Justin Bussies, and this would be his third visit to his local onsen since arriving only a few weeks earlier. There was a fireworks festival in Shionoe that evening that a few of the other JETs would be attending, but unfortunately I wouldn't be able to stay for it, so it was great that I was able to join up with Stephen and Sylvain during the day.

Shionoe was, once again, absolutely beautiful: this time it felt even more so due to to the absence of the festival stalls that had been there previously. We were in exactly the same spot as the firefly festival had been, to attend the exact onsen that I'd wanted to visit previously. I was pretty chuffed.

The onsen itself was a very quiet and modest affair, run by just a single woman and with only a few small pools for relaxing in. Of particular highlights were the outside pool complete with the noise of the local cicadas, and the underground sauna which was - frankly - roasting, but refreshing.

Naturally, I can't show you any photographs of our time inside the onsen (I'm not one for photographing pictures of other naked men), but it was a very relaxing experience as always, and I managed to enjoy myself with one of those spectacular Ramune drinks (and, in the onsen tradition, a bottle of milk afterwards).

I made my way back into town on the bus (while, ironically, Angie would be coming up to Shionoe to go to the fireworks event herself). It was regrettable that I wouldn't be able to go to the festival, but it was still a great little gesture to be invited along on my first weekend back, and I was pleased to have met at least one of the new ALTs. I really had a great time.

Stephen enjoys his post-onsen milk.

I'd love to spend more time at that onsen, but it's just that little bit too far away from my town of Kozai. Still, I'll make a point of heading back there where I can.

Hiroko's Shougakkou Farewell Enkai

Hiroko receives some farewell gifts.

On my first weekend back in Japan, I was feeling pretty exhausted, but I managed to muster up just enough energy to make it along to Hiroko's farewell enkai (work party) that was happening on Friday evening. After three days of classes, I was still fairly jet-lagged, but I didn't have shakuhachi practice the next morning and I decided to have a bit of relaxing fun.

Hiroko was leaving her job Tsuru-Uchi shogakkou to move on to work at her husband's company. It had always been great to see Hiroko while I was on my weekly visits to Tsuru-Uchi, but I wished her well and knew I'd continue seeing her and her family outside of school time anyway in the future.

Karaoke!

We made our way along to a small karaoke bar where we had a party into the early hours of the morning with the teachers. Fellow eikaiwa-leader Luke Beatson also came down for the evening. I managed to croon out a few classics (including "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi, "All My Life" by the Foo Fighters and "Hot and Cold" by Katy Perry). My performances had mixed reactions from enthusiastic encouragement to outright bewilderment (no one seemed to understand why I was singing Katy Perry).

My drink for the evening.

A fun night out, which I was happy to spend the next morning recovering from in my bed!

Overnight by Tokyo Station

And so it came to pass that, for the first time during the summer months, I would be returning for my third trip to Scotland; this time with Angie in tow! You can read all about my experiences in Scotland in my very next blog post....

Before we made it to Scotland, however, we had to travel to Terminal 2 at Tokyo Narita airport from Takamatsu. This time, however, was a bit more of an adventure than usual!

Usually I've always taken the night bus to get back home, as I've found this overnight service to Tokyo station (followed by the hour long train to the airport via the Narita Express) very convenient and perfect for syncing up with my flight times the next morning. This time, however, Angie and I were sadly unable to take this service as the tickets were sold out when we tried to book it. A bit of a pain, but not a deal-breaker. Instead, we would have to take trains almost immediately after school to get there in time (including the usual transfer to the shinkansen in Okayama), which would be considerably more expensive - basically double the cost (¥9000 vs ¥18000 approximately).

The other downside was that we were unable to find any suitable accommodation for our overnight stay. The only hotels available were far out of our price range, and we were too far away from any of the other cheaper hotels to consider them. As such, we would have to somehow spend the night in Tokyo around Tokyo Station... somehow.

Storage lockers.

Things appeared fine when we first arrived in Tokyo. Arriving just before 11pm, we put our luggage into the overnight storage at Tokyo Station (which apparently is time-locked between 11pm and 7am). Unfortunately, this would incur an overnight storage fee, but there wasn't anything we could do. Our flight was around 11am the next morning, so we would have to kill around twelve hours overnight, which we had initially planned to do just by killing time in the station. It quickly became apparent, however, that all of the restaurants and kiosks in the station were closing for the evening. Tokyo Station is nowhere near as central, big or busy as Shinjuku station, and it quickly became apparent that the station would be pretty much dead overnight.

We decided to make our way out onto the city streets, to see what food we could acquire there (as we hadn't eaten dinner, and were accordingly pretty hungry). It took an age to get out of the station, though, as Angie's ticket had disappeared and we had no idea how to cross the barrier gates without it (eventually a sympathetic gate-keeper happily let us through).

The area outside Tokyo Station.

Walking around the streets, we soon realised that not only were we with inconsiistent phone signal, but all of the nearby restaurants were very pricey and almost all closing at midnight (which was only minutes away). We followed our Google Maps towards the nearest combini, thinking that perhaps it would be our only source of salvation (there was also a McDonalds listed, but we had no idea whether or not it would be open 24 hours).

As we walked, and walked, and walked for seemingly an eternity, we headed towards a nearby karaoke place (Big Echo) next to a series of combinis, dreading what felt like the inevitable microwave dinner that awaited us. As luck would have it, we stumbled upon a small restaurant under an archway nearby, which appeared to be open all night.

Ordering a mix of dishes, we at last had some small comfort after feeling near starved and a bit helpless. The food was pretty good, as it happened, though the restaurant felt like it was in a very rough part of town!

Dinner!

After eating, we stopped at a nearby Lawson for overnight supplies, then made the long walk back again to Tokyo Station. Upon arrival, it became very clear that the station had actually closed for the night; it was almost deserted with the exception of a few construction workers who seemed to be doing some work on the building, and a few rather suspect characters that may well have been homeless. With several hours to go before morning, Angie and I appeared to be stuck.

Luckily, Angie struck upon a brilliant idea; find an all-night Internet Cafe.

Media Cafe POPEYE.

A quick Google search on our iPhones revealed one not too far away named 'Media Cafe POPEYE'. We decided to make our way there, which involved walking again for what seemed like another thirty minutes (including walking past some rough areas of Tokyo where several homeless people seemed to live). The cafe seemed to be in something of a red-light district (with police also patrolling the area), which was more than a bit concerning, but as our options were limited we decided to go for it.

The cafe itself was quiet and a bit run down; not as nice as my local Funky Time Internet Cafe (which I often frequent for the wonderful free drink service), but definitely serviceable. We each booked a private cubicle for the night with a padded floor, and also spotted a few other heads asleep at various computers nearby. Angie and I managed to get cubicles next to one another, which - along with the toilet facilities - would definitely do us for the night. We popped our phones on to charge and I decided to try and turn my PC on - but I couldn't even work out how to start it. As such, Angie and I put down our heads and managed to get about five hours of sleep.

Around 6am, and still feeling very sleepy, Angie and I got up in order to make it back to the train station for seven and reclaim our luggage. It hadn't been the best accomodation by any means, but it was definitely more than serviceable and provided an opportunity to get at least a little bit of sleep. If anyone is stuck overnight at Tokyo Station, I'd definitely recommend this an option (although be aware that you have to sign up for a membership card first, and that the walk may be a little dodgy - a taxi is probably recommended!).

A dodgy part of town.

The early morning walk felt somewhat surreal, as we again saw several homeless people living only a small walking distance away from the main Tokyo station. After about thirty minutes, we arrived at the front door (which I had often arrived at around 7am via night bus), and opted to get straight on the next train to Narita Airport. On the Narita Express, we both felt a little worn down before our flights home had even began.

Back at Tokyo Station.

We checked in at the airport, picked up some presents in the Duty Free, and finally made our way back to Scotland.

It had definitely been a long and memorable evening.