Widley does Tokyo
Hi! As those of you who've visited the model railway
forum at Gn15.info will know, my name is Widley
and I belong to Sue and Andy. I'm very fond of railways and I recently went out to Tokyo with Andy to
visit Sue, so he let me do this index page for his feature on Tokyo and Japanese railways. Then one of
his friends suggested that I write the whole thing, so over the next few weeks I'll add more pages.
It will take some time because I need to hunt and peck with my trunk, so Andy will probably type some
of it for me. Since these are my pages, the navigation is a bit different to Andy's stuff. Clicking
on the pictures of me here will take you to the detailed pages or you can click on
links like this in the text to get to specific items; there'll
be a picture of me on each of the pages that you can click on to get back to this 'index'. Go on,
try it.
Ah, glad to see that you made it back. Now, where was I? Oh yes. I was very excited when I realised that I was going to Japan, but the whole thing nearly ended in disaster before the trip started, when Andy found that his passport wasn't in the drawer with the e-tickets. I was very worried because I was looking forward to the trip. Only after trashing the house completely did he remember that he'd needed the passport as identification to collect a registered package. It was the only identification they'd accept other than a driving license, which he's never had. I am probably the only elephant in Britain who is in favour of voluntary identity cards for UK nationals. After finding the passport all he had to do was re-pack his suitcase, although the house looked as if it had already been burgled, which I think was a sensible security precaution. Then we were off, with me riding in Andy's camera-bag and looking out of the taxi window.
Checking in was easy and we got a window seat upstairs. The chief steward said I should be in the hold, but I soon realised that he was joking and he brought me a special glass of champagne to make up for it. I think I'm probably the first elephant to travel upstairs on a BA flight; the BA crews have a bear as a mascot but sadly he wasn't on board that day. If he's reading this, I hope to meet him some day. Andy fell asleep for a short while over Siberia and the stewardess gently moved me so that I could look out. It looked ever so white.
When we landed at Narita it was nine in the morning local time and we got onto the N'EX Narita Express which whistled us through the snow to Tokyo. Andy got us a beer each from the trolley and drank his very fast – all the coffee on the plane had made him very thirsty. We got to Shinagawa station and Andy phoned Sue, who arranged to meet him in Nathan's. The place doesn't have anything going for it except that it's near the station, so I ignored the beer and Andy had to drink two while we were waiting. Eventually Sue came and took us to her apartment, which was very nice.
Sue went back to work and suggested that we ride round on the Yamanote line, which is a circle in the centre of the city, as a way of getting our bearings. Unfortunately, she'd never ridden it at lunch-time on a weekday, and all I could do was check the sports results on the back pages of various newspapers. After that any time we went on the Yamanote line I hid in Andy's camera-bag. It was raining when we got off again, so Andy just planned out his visit to Sengaku-ji for the next day. Then we walked along the canals and went into a rather nicer bar called Alehouse 82 to wait for Sue.
The next day we went to Sengaku-ji where the 47 Ronin are buried. Then we went out to the Beer Museum at Ebisu and we ate in the restaurant afterwards. The food wasn't very special but there was a lovely dark beer call Yebisu. The brewery was named for the god Ebisu, one of the seven good fortune gods, and the area of Tokyo called Ebisu was named after the brewery. In the evening Andy went for a meal with Sue's colleagues, who asked him what we were going to do the next day. I wish I could have seen their faces when he told them we were going out to Chiba to investigate the track-bed of an old human-powered tramway.
We caught the slow train out to Chiba because Andy wanted to photograph the buildings; I couldn't see what he was going on about but he got very excited about some small alley-ways and a fairly ordinary piece of road. Then we went for a very quick ride on the monorail, which was scary because it hangs down and there's nothing underneath.
Then we rode the limited express back so that Andy could check the times for some train-rides later. I found out what the excess was and the man selling the tickets bowed to me and took his hat off before collecting the fare. It was worth it because there was a beer trolley, which you don't get on the slow trains. We went through Tokyo station to find train times, which was easy to navigate earlier in the day when all we had to do was change trains, but very confusing if you need to find the Shinkansen ticket-sales place outside the barrier. Later we found a little park under a motorway bridge.
The next day was the first day of Sue's holiday. Andy and I got up at four o'clock to see the sunrise reflected in the building opposite, and then we all went out before breakfast to ride on the monorail that goes to Haneda, Tokyo's other airport. At eight in the morning Sue and Andy were waiting for a train - standing in a refuge in the middle of a motorway to photograph the monorail: sometimes I think Sue is as mad as Andy. I came back with them for breakfast and said hello to one of Sue's colleagues, then we went on a boat-ride to the Asakusa shrine. I had a beer on the boat while Andy photographed a whole lot of scruffy buildings. The shrine was very busy, so Andy and I wandered around slowly while Sue went to the funfair, and then went to a local restaurant that Sue had seen but not wanted to go into on her own. In the afternoon we went to the Japanese war memorial shrine at Yasukuni, and in the evening we went to a Buddhist graveyard and tried to find some more restaurants Sue had read about in a guide-book, but she and Andy got hopelessly lost in the dark, so we ended up eating at about midnight in a noodle-bar in Shinagwa.
The next day we went to Yokohama so that Sue could go up the MM21 tower. I saw Fuji-san in the distance, it was very hazy but I knew we'd be going closer the next day so I was quite excited. We went to the old warehouses and Andy spent a lot of time photographing where the old railway was. I was used to t by now. We went round the old part of Yokohama and saw the European graveyard, and then we went to eat in a food-court in the enormous Chinatown. Andy managed to find a fast train back – he was practicing for a trip to a special railway later in the week. I was very tired when we got back, but excited for the next day.
The next day we went out to the coach station an sat on the coach out to the Fuji viewing place. We already knew that the road up the mountain was closed, but when we got to the viewing place Fuji-san was covered in cloud. I was sad but not as sad as Sue, who had been looking forward to the trip all week. The tour guide and driver did their best to make things interesting, but when we got to the lake Fuji was still in cloud and I could hardly see anything from the boat. So I had a sake from the bar while Sue and Andy tried to find things to photograph.
The normal cable-railway was closed, but the coach driver picked us up from the boat and drove us to another one up a very windy road. I think it was very good of him,because the bus only just fitted. The ride on the cable-car was fun but there was still nothing to see. When they got to the top, Sue and Andy found a shop and bought some black eggs coloured with sulphur from the local springs and some special sake, a processed version of some raw stuff that we'd had at Asakusa. Then we drove back to Odawara station and caught the Shinkansen back to Shinagawa station. On the way I drank one of the special sakes. Sue was very disappointed by the day, so we went to the all-night aquarium and saw the dolphin show. They were very well-trained, and Sue went to a small funfair while we waited and watched a swinging pirate boat in the bar.
The next morning, Andy was very nervous, because Sue had been so disappointed with the Fuji trip and we'd organised the trip to Kamakura ourselves. Sue wanted to see the shrines but Andy's main reason for going was to ride on the Enoden (Enoshima Dentetsu), which had been recommended by a friend on the Gn15 list. He was worried that Sue might be disappointed today as well, and it would be his fault. We all rode out on the JR line to Kita-Kamakura and got off to see the Engaku-ji shrine. The railway runs through the end of the shrine garden. Then we walked to Kamakura station to get on the train to Enoshima island. Sue enjoyed it a lot and Andy was feeling relieved, but better was to come, because from the bridge across to the island was a beautiful view of Fuji-san, as good as it would have been from the lake the previous day. After we walked round the island, the light had changed as well and Fuji-san looked quite different. They bought me a little train-set as a souvenir of what I think was the best day of the trip.
The next day we were back on a coach trip, this time to the Nikko area, a romantic destination for Valentine's day and pretty difficult to do by public transport. We went through a lot of snow to get to a big shrine where we could go into the main building. It was very pretty but quite cold. Later, though, I realised that it hadn't been cold at all. When we got to the lake it was bitter even with my fur. After the lake, the coach drove us down a huge corniche. When we got onto the motorway it was dusk and we were rewarded with views of Fuji-san in the sunset for about half an hour, and Sue and Andy drank another of the special sakes while I looked out of the window.
The next morning, Sue and Andy got up really early to visit the fishmarket, but I was tired so I stayed in the apartment until they got back. Then we went for another ride on the monorail and then out to Odaiba island on something that Sue's American colleagues call a monorail but is in fact an elevated guided busway called a 'transit'. Then we went out to a classical garden with some very nice fish. It was my last day in Japan, because we had to leave for the airport at eight in the morning, so of course we tried to fit too much in.
After the Yoshiwara we went to Electric City so that Andy could buy some little cars. Then we went on a tramway that winds through back gardens just like the Enoden, with a nice bar at the terminus where I had a beer specially bottled to mark the 125th anniversary of the formatio of the local university, but it was dark by the end, so we went back to Alehouse 82, my favourite bar, to say goodbye. Earlier in the week when I stayed home the staff had asked where I was, so I made sure to say Sayonara to them all and I had the special beer and some tomato and Mozarella skewers that Andy had raved about: much better than British bar nibbles. I was quite sad as I walked back to the apartment for the last time.
Sue came with us to see us off at the airport. The original idea had been that we would all fly back together, but Sue had more work to do. We were very sad about this. They had missed breakfast so they had beer and sushi from the trolley, but it was a bit early in the morning for me (alhough Andy pointed out that it was still before midnight where we were going). Andy checked in - it was much more difficult than at Heathrow - and then we all had a final dark beer until it was time to say goodbye and head for the courtesy lounge. There was a half-hour delay boarding so we had miso soup and sake: the lounge was better than the one at Heathrow and made up for the check-in.
We boarded and Andy had an aisle seat so that he could work on the laptop more easily. The bear wasn't on this flight either but I sent my regards via the chief stewardess who knows him. We had champagne again and after the meal I watched Andy work for a bit as the stewardess brought him more wine. I got very tired but because the flight would be in daylight all the way they darkened the cabin which doesn't suit Andy's metabolism, so he went and stood in the galley with some other engineers and the off-duty cabin crew. I looked after his wine until breakfast time, and then it was time to get off.
You may have noticed that towards the end of the trip I was looking quite grey. A while ago Andy joined a conservators' list to find out how to get me clean. Being an elephant, I like bathing, so we went to watch the ducks (left) and then home to wash me. I stayed in the airing cupboard overnight and then when we were watching the birds in Lordswood (right) I was bright pink again. For a small elephant Japan was a very big adventure: I'd like to have stayed longer but it's nice to be home.