Category: 旅 / Travel

The story goes back to the day I left for my summer vacation. I worked at home on that day, and my mother stopped my home during the daytime. She said she wanted to go to Hokkaido in the fall. I then recalled that the last time I visited Shiretoko in Eastern Hokkaido in the fall, the weather was not good and it was a little early for the autumn leaves. That time was in late September, so it might be good to try a little later.

While heading to Tokyo Haneda Airport after work, I checked schedule and found that all fit in mid-October. Since I was going to visit Shiretoko, I decided to go from Friday to Sunday and added a visit to a sushi place in Oumu Town as well. Using Wi-Fi in the All Nippon Airways (ANA) lounge at Haneda, I sinfully booked Japan Airlines (JAL) award ticket, and set off for Croatia.

While I spend days lazily after returning from the summer vacation, time to go to Hokkaido was approaching. I thought that accommodation fee in Shiretoko would probably be expensive the night before Sunday, so I decided to stay in Shiretoko on Friday and stay in Oumu Town on Saturday. However, to my surprise, the Hotel Hinodemisaki in Oumu Town was fully booked on Saturday night. I secured the last remaining room at the hotel on Friday night and decided to stay in Shiretoko on Saturday night. This would allow to visit Shiretoko Lakes on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

When I arrived at Memanbetsu Airport on Friday morning, the weather was clear. This itself was wonderful, but the problem was poor weather forecasted for Saturday and Sunday. The bad weather during the last visit to Shiretoko was one of reasons to choose the destination in Hokkaido. If the forecast was correct, I would encounter bad weather in Shiretoko again.

I had a vague recollection that it was not too far from Memanbetsu Airport to Shiretoko. I also recalled that it was not too far from Memanbetsu Airport to Oumu Town either. If so, it would be a good idea to go to Shiretoko on that day while clear skies expected.

I rented a car at the airport and arrived at Shiretoko before noon. It was not crowded probably because it was on a weekday, and I went to the pathway. The autumn leaves stood out in the blue sky, and the blue sky and the autumn leaves were reflected on the surface of Shiretoko Lakes. It was beautiful.

When I finished taking photos and looked at the watch, it was just before 3:00 p.m. It was about time to head for Oumu Town.

I then realized that I had underestimated Hokkaido geography. When I entered the Hotel Hinodemisaki into car navigation system, it estimated time of arrival at 7:30 p.m. When I repeated the phrase “not too far” twice in Hokkaido, it would be quite far, or rather too far away. I had made a 7:00 p.m. reservation at the sushi restaurant in Oumu Town. Anyhow, I got in the car and started driving.

Since there is no such boorish thing as highway along the Okhotsk coast, I followed cars with highway-like speeds of locals and caught in slow-moving traffic in the towns. I arrived at the hotel by 7:00 p.m. despite unsteady speeds. I left my luggage in the room and made it to the sushi restaurant before 7:20 p.m.

From this point on, I hardly remember anything. I disliked driving, so I felt a great sense of relief by the safety arrival. On top of that, there were delicious sushi served. Without a second to think about, I ended up drinking like fish.

When I came to realize, it was 4:00 a.m. and I had been asleep in bed. The hot spring in Oumu have a high salt content probably due to its proximity to the sea, and they are quite warming. I thought it would be a bad idea to leave without taking a bath after having come all the way there. Since it was too early in the morning, I thought there would be no one in the bath. It should be nicely quiet. I still felt a buzz from last night drinking.

I went into the bathhouse without thinking anything at all. A voice called out from the darkness, “good morning”. It seemed that there was a night shift employee taking the bath in his break time.

I calmly responded “good morning” but I could not help myself blushed.

Since the beginning of June, news media said that Japanese government considered subsidy program to expand domestic travel. I thought it was a good economic stimulation program, but for me, it could be obstacle for my weekend trips as all airplanes, trains, hotels would likely be clouded. I had decided to make a last-minute twist to find destinations before the subsidy program began.

Since I had set my plan in June, the rainy season would be the biggest concern. While Okinawa would be out of the rainy season by late June, Hokkaido also seemed to be nice choice as no rainy season there.

I was tempted to visit Rebun Island one more time, but last year’s stay was nearly perfect. I did not think I would be able to surpass that, so I decided to pass. It might be a little early for lavender season, but I would like to visit Biei and Furano for typical Hokkaido farming scenery. The gateway is Asahikawa Airport, and there were some seats available on frequent flyer award ticket for round trip.

However, Hokkaido is said to have something called Ezo rainy season. Although I had been watching the weather forecast every day, there was no chance of sunshine in the forecast during the period I planned to visit. I was not sure if it would be a good idea to go to Hokkaido farmlands while it could be rained all the time. At a late night before few days prior to the departure, I decided to cancel the trip.

It was in the middle of rainy season south of Honshu. I had taken a day off from work, but it might be a good idea to work on that day if there were rains everywhere in Japan.

No way. I was not a such kind of guy, so I did my best to find a place where would not be rain. As expected in the last minute, airline tickets to Okinawa were expensive, and the hotels on Taketomi Island, where I had wanted to visit, were fully booked. The only other destinations that looked promising weather were the Izu Islands and the Kii Peninsula.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) had a flight from Tokyo Haneda to Hachijojima of Ize Island, and there were seats available for the award tickets. I was somewhat tempted to go to Hachijojima, but the accommodations where looked good were already fully booked. I had to give up the idea.

Last year, I visited Koyasan (Mt. Koya), which was my only stay in Wakayama Prefecture. It would be nice to know Wakayama more. I decided to visit the Kumano Kodo Trails on the Kii Peninsula, which also had been in my mind for some time. I decided to fly to Nanki-Shirahama Airport by Japan Airlines in the morning of the first day. Then I would take trains on the return trip, which would be easily rescheduled depending on the weather.

I was curious about the Kumano area because I often went to a yakitori restaurant who offered chicken produced in Kumano area called Kumano Jidori. At the same time, I knew nothing more about Kumano other than the chicken. I hurriedly researched Kumano almost all night.

When I arrived at Tokyo Haneda Airport early in the morning, announcements were made that flights to Hokkaido could be interrupted due to bad weather. While thinking that I might make a right choice, TV news forecasted clear skies for Asahikawa area on the next day and the day after. It was too huge gaps between the airport announcement and TV forecast. Will the weather in Hokkaido improve dramatically from now on? The possibility of making wrong choice flashed through my mind.

When I arrived at Nanki-Shirahama Airport, it was a full-blown overcast day, even more clouds than Tokyo. Until yesterday, weather forecast had said clear skies expected. I might have made the wrong choice. The phrase, “too much scheming could lead to his downfall,” came to my mind.

From the airport, I took a bus to Kumano Hongu Shrine. This was a direct bus service, but the Kii Peninsula was much larger than I imagined and it took a long time to get there. I fell asleep on the way there, and when I woke up it was raining heavily. The weather in the Kii Peninsula seemed to be deteriorating dramatically. I must have made a wrong choice.

In the end, by the time I arrived at Kumano Hongu Shrine, the rain had stopped, but the atmospheric conditions were unstable, periodical sunny and rain going by. Nevertheless, I started walking along the Kumano Kodo Trails.

I then realized that I had recently visited the Kunisaki Peninsula and Hagurosan Shrine in Dewa, and two places had temples and shrines deep in the mountains. In fact, there were not much of differences in photographically besides they were cloudy in two places. Once again, the phrase “too much scheming could lead to his downfall” came to mind.

Nevertheless, I visited two Kumano Kodo Trails on two days. The weather was cloudy or light rain. They were all flat gray in photos. I must have made a wrong choice.

In the evening of the second day, the sun finally appeared. My heart also cleared somewhat.

Day 3 was originally forecast to be cloudy, so I decided to take an early train back to Tokyo. Still, I did not collect the tickets that I had reserved though website, hoping for a last-minute sunshine.

Early in the morning of the last day, I was awakened by a tremendous roar of thunder. It was raining utterly hard. I decided to leave Kumano as planned.

On the way back from Kumano, I took the JR limited express Namki to Nagoya, which took about 4 hours, and then transferred to the Shinkansen. After returning home in a daze feeling, I checked the weather in Asahikawa and found that it had rained heavily on the first day, then clear skies on the second and third days. I had completely made the wrong choice.

I learned that the schemer surely had fallen for his scheming.

Recent trip to Kumano left me somewhat dissatisfied. It was because I gave up my plan to visit Biei and Furano because I had relied on weather forecast too much. However, I could not just give up for travels although I tennded doing so for anything else.

By the summer, COVID-19 outbreak was worsen again. Because of wide spread of the outbreak, people were canceling their summer trips. Indeed, I was infected the COVID-19 and had to cancel my trip in early August. This brought back bitter memories of Kumano. I might be able to find someone’s cancellation slot.

Checking availabilities of the hotels in Biei and Furano, where I gave up last time. After checking hotel vacancies almost every day, I finally found availabilities on the days I wanted.

The gateway to Biei and Furano area was Asahikawa, there was a frequent flyer free seat available on the outbound flight from Tokyo Haneda to Asahikawa even though it was last minute in summer. On the return trip, there was a seat available on the last flight from Sapporo Shin-Chitose to Tokyo Haneda on award ticket. Asahikawa to Shin-Chitose Airport was three-hour train ride but should not be a bad plan considering air tickets were free in August weekend, peak season of Hokkaido. Moreover, three days before departure, frequent flyer award ticket became available on the last direct flight from Asahikawa to Tokyo Haneda, so I was able to rebook it.

It seemed almost a miracle. As same as Rebun Island visit in the past, the gods of Hokkaido must have told me to come.

A lesson from the Kumano trip was that “too much scheming will be the schemer’s downfall.” I thought not to be too concerned on the weekly weather forecast, and not to waste my time re-planning the trip because of it. I should enjoy the weather as it is.

Despite my own thoughts, I became curious about the weather forecast a few days before my departure. I cannot behave as I should have learned.

The forecast for the day of arrival was sunny or cloudy, and it would rain on the second day, then the last day would be sunny again. It looked like it would be sunny at least one whole day during my stay in Biei, where would give me a typical farmland scenery of Hokkaido. I flew out of Tokyo on a sunny day with a rather relaxed mind.

When I arrived at Asahikawa Airport, it was unfortunately cloudy. Although the lavender flower season was over, I first headed to Furano to see the flower fields. The forecast said clear skies expected in the afternoon, so I decided to postpone visiting my main destination, Biei, until later of the day.

As expected, it cleared up as time passed. I drove around Biei by rental car. I was able to visit all the places I wished to see in a half day. When I drove around, I found that both Biei and Furano were far more crowded than I had imagined. Since I was already satisfied with Biei on the first day, I decided to look for other places after the second day.

The next day was cloudy with light rain. I gave up on landscape photography and decided to visit Asahiyama Zoo. As expected on a summer weekend, the zoo was crowded, but seemingly not as bad as typical Sunday during the non-COVID time.

On the third day, the weather cleared up as predicted. First, I took the ropeway to Mt. Asahidake. After that, I returned to Biei again and headed for a sunset spot called Shin-ei Hill Observation Park.

I had read somewhere that the sunset view of Shin-ei Hill is the best sunset view in Japan although I knew many places claimed so. The condition was rather tough for photography due to higher position of the sun by surrounding mountains. It caused bright sunlight coming into the lenses, but I was able to capture a beautiful moment. This may not be “the best” sunset place in Japan, but it is certainly a wonderful view. If I had to fly back to Tokyo via Sapporo Shin-Chitose Airport, I would have to miss this place due to time constraint.

In this summer, northern Japan experienced heavy rains, and the weather in Hokkaido seemed to be unstable. Nevertheless, I was able to make an efficient visit and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Hokkaido.

When I messed up my visit to Kumano, I thought that too much scheming would be the schemer’s downfall. Despite the old saying, I always wonder if a real schemer could somehow sticking where he was.

Yet I am a man of small caliber, so I would never be able to act like a ninja. Therefore, I could not help myself into downfall. I must rely on external power to save me.

In the end, I am sure that the gods of Hokkaido gave me a second chance.

I took a bus from Croatia to Montenegro. Contrary to the weather forecast, the last day in Croatia was sunny, and I headed for Montenegro with high expectations. However, this summer vacation was not easy for me. The clouds began to show up when I boarded the bus at Dubrovnik, and by the time the bus reached the Croatia – Montenegro border, it started to rain.

On the previous day, I was able to pass Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina border without getting off the tour bus, probably because there were only one-day tour guests onboard. On the other hand, at the border of Croatia and Montenegro, not only two countries had checkpoints that were far apart, the bus passengers had to get off the bus twice to go through passport control for both countries. Furthermore, the checkpoint in the Montenegro was not well equipped, there was a little space to avoid the rain. Maybe because it was on a weekend, the border crossing took more than one and a half hours, and I got wet.

It was a dark and stormy night. Outside the window was the jet-black Kotor Bay, and I gradually began to feel gloomy.

Eventually, the bus arrived in Kotor, Montenegro, about an hour late. On this trip, I booked for a rental apartment in Kotor Old Town. It was an old house on a back alley.

When I woke up the next morning, it was strangely dark. Since the house was faced a narrow alley, the wooden door attached to the window was closed. When I opened the window, I found that it was still raining lightly, and windows of the neighborhood building were just in front of me. Since it was Sunday, I did not expect that I would be able to visit the churches in the morning, so I closed the door, went back to bed and slept until late.

When I finally went out in the afternoon, the rain was stopped and cloudy. Even worse, the town was surprisingly crowded.

My relationship with gods were very limited in my daily life, such as gods of Yakushima or gods of Steam Locomotive. Even so, I visit many religious sites when I travel.

Visiting to Kotor was the main purpose of this summer trip. Last time I was in this town, I was fascinated by an Orthodox Church. It was an old and small cathedral of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church called Church of St. Luke. I was particularly fascinated by the simple cathedral, while the neighboring St. Nicholas Church was larger and more grandiose. The St. Luke must had given quite impressions to me, because this led me to visit an Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria few years later.

The Old Town of Kotor is small but has an intricate network of alleys. It is easier to find places by wandering around or by follow other tourist groups rather than by looking at a map. Yet, there were too many people during the daytime, all I could barely do was just browsing the stores.

In the late afternoon, when the number of people had finally decreased, I started to visit the churches. I sat in the corner of the churches and gazed chapels. From time to time, there came moments of silence without any tourists at all. I was able to take my time to visit about five churches. Finally, I came across the Sunday evening service at St. Nicholas Church, and I stood in a corner of the Orthodox Church.

The next day was practically the last day of summer vacation, and it was finally sunny again. There are mountains outside the Kotor City Walls, where you can look down the old town. I could not trust the weather on this trip, so I decided to leave early in the morning. I climbed up to a viewpoint along the way, but the Old Town was still in the shade of the mountains. I sat on a bench to kill some time and helped about four groups taking their photos, and finally the Old Town got the light. Kotor Old Town itself was smaller than the Dubrovnik’s, but Kotor was surrounded by mountains which gave magnificent views.

I then made to the top of the mountain, which my iPhone said about 80 floors up. The return trip was going down the same way, but the damages to my legs and knees felt more than the way up.

When I returned to the rental apartment, it was already around the noon. There was a popular pizza place nearby, and I bought a few slices and a bottle of beer for lunch. As expected, I was exhausted and took a nap.

In the evening, I went out for one last walk around the Old Town, but my knees ached. I felt too tired to walk, so I sat on a bench at the harbor and watched Kotor at dusk. It was an impressive town, with mountains spreading out around, and clear water from them pouring into the calm surface of the Bay of Kotor. The Bay had been jet black when I arrived, was filled with blue water then.

Although Kotor is a town where tourists generally spend only a few hours by a short visit from cruise ships or an one-day tour from Dubrovnik, I was able to spend two full days there and thoroughly enjoy the town.

I initially thought that this summer vacation would be refreshing and full of dazzling sun of Adriatic Sea. In the end, this summer vacation was not easy one owing continuous bad weather and many unexpected events. In the end, I got two sunny days in both Dubrovnik and Kotor. I should have been satisfied and concluded that all’s well that ends well.

I have reached such a positive conclusion only when I go on a trip.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, I began to travel more frequently in Japan, but I had not been able to visit Okinawa. The last visit to Okinawa was a business trip to Naha, just before the travel restrictions implemented.

It is not that I am not interested in visiting Okinawa. However, the timings of my plans coincided with peaks of COVID-19 infection in Okinawa. I hesitated the visits because I had planned going to remote islands, where medical resources were limited even for locals.

This year, there were two three-day weekends in September. I had thought of not going anywhere during the longer weekends because they would be too crowded. At the same time, it would not be a good idea to spend them idly lounging at home. Thinking about it for a while, I recalled that I was just infected with COVID-19 and acquired antibodies, so the risk of infection was low for the time being. Therefore, the risk of pressurizing medical resources on remote islands were also low. As long as the usual infection control measures were taken, all should be ok.

I tend to make thoughtless actions especially for traveling. Based on my (un)scientific conclusion, I checked on Taketomi Island, where I had been interested in for a long time, and found that there were hotels available despite the three-day weekend.

Gateway to Taketomi Island is Ishigaki Island. Of course, there were no seats available on the frequent flyer award ticket to Ishigaki Island on the three-day weekends. I tried to find an inexpensive way to get there. I liked to make travel plans, so this kind of tweaking was rather fun for me.

I firstly found an inexpensive ticket for Shimoji Island using Jetstar leaving Tokyo Narita early in the morning. There seemed to be no flight from Shimoji Island to Ishigaki Island, but the Shimoji Island was connected to Miyako Island by a bridge, and buses were operated according to the flight schedule. From Miyako Island to Ishigaki Island, Ryukyu Air Commuter operated at high frequency. From Ishigaki Island, it was a 20-minute ferry ride to Taketomi Island. It would be possible to reach Taketomi Island by the evening.

This first day seemed troublesome, but looked like island hopping and would be fun.

On the way back from Taketomi Island, I could take advantage of the discount ticket from Ishigaki Island to Tokyo Haneda via Naha. I had to spend about 5 hours in Naha to adjust lower-cost flight, but I thought I could kill time in town for sightseeing or shopping.

I was able to get tickets with satisfactory cost and schedule. At the last minute, a frequent flyer award ticket from Naha to Tokyo Haneda became available, so I re-book for a return ticket. Then all I had to do was going to Okinawa.

However, it was not that simple indeed. I booked an early morning flight from Tokyo Narita to Shimoji Island but taking that flight that was not as easy as I thought because I lived in Yokohama, west of downtown Tokyo.

I could not miss the flight to Shimoji Island due to train delays etc., besides Jetstar is leaving from LCC’s Terminal 3 at Narita Airport, a long walk from the airport station. In the end, I had to wake up at 3:00 a.m. and took a cab to Sakuragicho Station. From Sakuragicho, I took the first train on the Keihin Tohoku Line leaving at 4:18 a.m., which was said to be the earliest first train in Japan. I also boarded another first train from Shinagawa Station to Narita Airport. By the time I boarded the plane, I was exhausted.

Thanks to this, I was able to sleep on board and had no time to complain about the cramped seats in a packed LCC airplane. From Shimoji Island, I took a bus to Miyako Island via Irabu Island. The ocean in this area was perfect blue.

Since I had slight time at Miyako Airport to wait my 2nd flight, I got off the bus and walked around the public market of Miyako Island. It was very hot and humid.

It was already autumn in Tokyo area, and the summer heat had passed. The weather of Miyako Island felt like a harsh climate to me even in late September.

I decided to have lunch at the public market. When you come to Okinawa, you should eat Okinawa soba (Okinawa’s local noodles). Since this is Miyako Island, they call it Miyako soba.

There were several Miyako soba restaurants in the public market. The store facing the courtyard had beers, but I had to eat outside. On the other hand, an indoor store did not seem to have beer, but they were air-conditioned. After some hesitation, I decided to go to the indoor restaurant.

When I approached the lady at the store, she was somewhat surprised. She seemed to have given up business on that day. The restaurant’s specialty is “mozuku tempura” (tempura of seaweed). As she decided to close early on that day, she gave me some leftover tempura.

After receiving the mozuku tempura in a paper bag, I took a cab to Miyako Airport. As I had some more time to kill before boarding, I had a can of local Orion beer in one hand, and the paper bag of mozuku tempura in another. It was quite nice time.

The propeller plane from Miyako Airport arrived at Ishigaki Island in about 20 minutes. From the airport, I took a bus to the ferry terminal. I decided to take a later boat to Taketomi Island and went to a restaurant near the port to eat Okinawa soba again. Ishigaki Island is a part of the area called Yaeyama Islands, so they call it Yaeyama soba. And, I finally got local Orion beer on draft.

Finally, I arrived at Taketomi Island around 4:30 pm. It was a long trip, more than 12 hours after I left home. I put the luggage at the hotel and went out to explore the town. I had another Yaeyama soba on Taketomi Island for dinner. Three bowls of Okinawa soba, five islands, and countless beers on this day alone.

Taketomi Island still maintains an old-fashion Okinawan countryside. I walked around the town in the early morning and evening when the crowds were small. While the island was busy with tourists in hot and humid daytime, I was idly lounging and drank beers. After all, I acted almost as same as I stayed home.

In the end, the only difference was the place where I was idly lounging and had beers, changed from my home to Okinawa. Still, the weather was fine, and it was a wonderful three-day weekend.