Tamworth to Tokyo

 

Yes, you read that title right, we start the day in Tamworth and it leads into the next day in Tokyo, with a flight between them. So, settle down for a long read.

Morning - Monday

The day (Monday 30th September) starts with me waking at 4am when I update the family photos from yesterday that Alice and David had shared with me.

Drew wakes at 5.30am and I make espressos for us both using the coffee machine in the room. We begin our ablutions finish our packing - mainly the items we use for our ablutions i.e. shaving and teeth brushing things, having packed the rest last night. 

We pack the car, drop the room keycards into the overnight box and leave this lovely hotel at 6.30am, we have had a great stay. 

Route

This is the route we took from Tamworth to the Airport:

We could have travelled a slightly faster route, by heading across the mountains to Newcastle and heading into Sydney on the M1, the way we came out a fortnight ago. But we felt it would be more interesting to see more of the country, so opted to travel directly south coming in to Sydney from the Parramatta end of the City (and still avoiding the Toll Roads). 

On the Road

Having left at 6.30am we headed down on the road to Goonoo Goonoo which we visited for dinner last Thursday. We passed there at 6.50am and are now on roads new to us. 

As Drew has plenty of spare data on his mobile, and it isn't transferable to Japan (different rates apply there) we decide to listen to an Australian Country Music playlist on Spotify, rather than the tracks Drew has on his phone, which he uses when he is running and which we have listened to on past drives. We opted to use these as they are stored on the phone so don't use any data. We have been using Drew's mobile phone for the maps/music in the car on our travels. This means that when I'm not driving I can write notes as I am now, for when the opportunity to blog arrives. 

Drew likes the kind of drive where the map looks like this:

i.e. go 150km without turning.

We travel along the Liverpool Plains, through Wallabadah 

and Murrurundi. 

With layers and layers of hills ahead, it is very picturesque, but not easy to take many photos from the car. 

We travel through Scone, which is known as 'The Horse Capital of Australia' and claims to be the second-largest horse breeding area in the world, after Kentucky in the United States.

and then Aberdeen which the Aussietowns website says is a town more famous for the highlights of the surrounding countryside than for the buildings or streetscapes of the centre. They aren't wrong! 

We come to Muswellbrook - named when in 1864 when a large numbers of mussel shells were found on the riverbank as it was being surveyed.

At we find out why the map showed us turning back on ourselves at a roundabout, as the cafe which is our target is on the other side of the road from that we come in on, and there is a stone barrier in the centre of the road. 

Breakfast

We stop at 8.20am at the Cattle Dog Cafe and Florist, yes we thought it sounded like a strange combination too!

We liked the decor of the place, especially the board for lost socks

It has other nic-naks for sale too.

As you can see before, the promise of breakfast, almost two hours into our journey puts me in a food mood.

For breakfast Drew opted for his, now traditional,Egg and Bacon Roll, he was very impressed by the freshly made bread into which the generous portion of bacon, egg and cheese had been placed.

I had opted for the Special Big Breakfast and while it wasn't as large as the one in Gusto it was still very tasty. It had two eggs two rashers of bacon, two pork sausages, a chorizo sausage, roasted cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, and two hash browns with a side of toast - Yum.

A reflection on Australian Cafes

It seems strange on reflection that I don't think I've mentioned the distinctive issue about Australian Cafes which we noted from the first day of our car tour. Unlike in the UK where the question you might ask when wanting to relieve yourself would be: "Where is your toilet, Please" in Australia the question is: "Where is the nearest toilet, please." Yes, though it seems very, very strange to me after five decades when cafes have been obliged to provide toilets for its clientele in the UK, here in Australia there is no such obligation. The Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 made a toilet a requirement in a premises selling food or drink with more than 10 seats. Not so in Australia.

To be fair, public toilets are plentiful and well maintained in Australia, so different from many British ones. But it still comes as a shock to have to ask where the toilet is. In this case the answer was: "Walk to where you see the dog and go through the double doors, you'll see the signs from there. The dog in question wasn't a moveable feature, but this fella: 

and the toilets were in the centre of a small mall. They were, as expected, well kept, completely clean and very comfortable. 

Incidentally the dog in the statue is a Cattle Dog, not just the name of the cafe, but Muswellbrook's claim to fame, as this breed originates here from the interbreeding of Australian dingoes with Northumberland Blue Merles. 

Back on the road

We leave Muswellbrook at 9.10am and travel on the Golden Highway, B84, through a lot of Hunter Valley Vineyards. We are well into wine land here. 

We are also in an area of active mining with notices about road closures for ten minutes when they are blasting. We saw the warnings but weren't affected on today's journey. 

But soon after leaving Muswellbrook, we were on Putty Road and again had a long road with no turn-offs for 123km.

We continued to listen to the Country Music Playlist and after the third version of "Pub with no beer" the music took a darker turn with a song called the Gurindji Blues - Drew was intrigued by this song, which has the lyrics:

 Oh poor bugger me, Gurindji.

Poor bugger blackfeller; Gurindji

Long time work no wages, we,  

Work for the good old Lord Vestey

a piece of music more reflective of Aboriginal and Torres Islands people's rights than the normal type of Australian Country Music. The full lyrics and more about the background to the song can be found here.

Yengo National Park

We passed through the mountains of Yengo National Park and were held up by some major roadworks. We had to wait for a pilot vehicle and then follow it for 5km as a bit of the road we  were on had fallen off the end of a gorge into the valley below, the whole of the left lane had disappeared, so it was single track over this piece of mountain. 

Next we follow a very bendy road which climbs up and then back down the mountain until Putty Road reaches the village of Putty. 

and from Putty we arrived at Colo Heights at 11.50am. 

Drew has been driving for four hours and 30 minutes (1 hour 40 on the first stretch and 2 hours 40 on the second) and we have travelled 350km since we left Tamworth. It is time for a lunch break.

Colo Heights Service Station

While Colo Heights only building appears to be the service station it has a wide range of facilities. The service station is a Bar, Petrol Station, Shop, Chip Shop, Takeaway and Restaurant!

It is a little run down and somewhat eccentrically laid out

The two young Punjabi guys who run the place are very friendly and do everything themselves.

The takeaway menu is also the eat-in menu and I choose what was called Steak Sandwich with the works and chips

The 'works' turned out to include beetroot, lettuce and tomatoes along with the steak in a toasted sandwich. It turned out to taste much nicer than it sounds.

Drew choose a Cheeseburger and Chips which he also enjoyed. [Co-pilot's note: By enjoyed, dear readers, he means was intrigued by. It was a perfectly pleasant burger, but would have been improved if the bun had not been buttered!!]

The place had clean toilets outside the building. They were ones that didn't lock but luckily it was reasonably quiet. 

We filled the car up with Petrol and were on our way at 12.50pm

Heading to Sydney Airport

As usual, as we were approaching the big City I took over the driving for the next part of the journey. Soon after leaving Colo Heights we climbed down the mountains over a 8km drive which led to Colo and then through Windsor before arriving in the western suburbs of Sydney. 

We drove through Parramatta which is a big city in its own right, though also a suburb of the larger city and after 85 kilometres and one hour and fifty minutes - city driving been much slower than country driving - we stopped a Shell petrol station on Roberts Road, Greenacre to top the car up - returning it with a full tank means no extra fees and 18km and 35 minutes later we were at the International Terminal Building where we were to drop off our car. We missed the car dropoff at first attempt, but a short loop around the airport meant we made it the second time.

We parked the car and handed the keys in at the Avis desk at 3.20pm - well before the 4pm target time. and were shortly in departures.

As with previous airports on this trip we checked-in quickly and were through security in no time. 

By 3.45pm, less than 30 minutes from dropping the car off we were getting comfortable in the Qantas Business Lounge.

We didn't really need food, having had a good breakfast and lunch, so we had nibbles, cold drinks and coffees in the lounge while I loaded up the photos from today, so that by the time we left Sydney we were right up to date on Flickr.

Flight

The flight from Sydney to Tokyo Haneda Airport was due to leave at 8.25pm and was on time

At 7.40pm we go to gate 33 - a short walk from the lounge and we board first. 

We are in row 4E and 4F - a slightly different layout from the Dreamliner, but with just as much space. The main difference is that the table is the opposite side from the London flight.  But I guess that would have been true if I'd been in a different row coming out. It is a 10 hour flight, but 9 hours on the clock, as Japan is one hour behind Sydney. 

Here is Drew settling in to seat 4F.

and here is my seat beside him

The flight departs on time at 8.25pm and having learnt the benefits of pyjamas on the first flight of the holiday, by 8.50pm I was in my Qantas jimjams.

Ready for our evening meal before we sleep. 

I'm 19 days, almost three weeks behind on the Archers, so I have plenty of catch-up listening on this journey. In between sleep time.

Breakfast choices for the morning are made before supper is served. The steward asks if I want to be woken for breakfast or left to sleep - anyone who knows me knows what the answer was!! 

I watch the map on the screen, we travel up above Newcastle and on towards Brisbane and Gympie, places I now know on the ground as well as in the air. Then supper is served.

Supper

We are offered a choice of breads with the Green leaf salad, the choice is Sourdough or Focaccia but they don't object when I ask for both.

I had chosen seared snapper with ginger and shallot dressing, steamed bok choy and egg fried rice for my supper and it was really delicious. Drew, enjoying his food to much forgot to take any photos on this flight. [Co-pilot's note: Whilst, dear readers, there are no photos, I can advise you of a slight kerfuffle viz a viz my dinner. I ordered the vegetarian option which was angel hair pasta with broccoli, garlic, pine nuts and chilli. Unfortunately the steward brought me a seared snapper, which I began to eat. A few minutes later he came back to check what I had asked for, at this point I'd forgotten what I requested. He then returned with angel hair pasta as per his list - hence I managed to have double dinner! There was some chuntering coming from the next seat, beyond the barrier, where someone only had one dinner 😉]

The dessert course again included a cheese board, it was such a generous proportion of the three cheeses that I had to turn the plate around to ensure I got all of them in the picture.

These two are Woombye Ash Brie-triple cream, cow's milk (A very unusual brie, with brie texture but much sharper flavour) and Tarwin Blue blue vein, cow's milk - An excellent Blue cheese.

The cheese in the next photo is Pyengana matured cheddar, cow's milk - very mature and extremely tasty

Sleep

At 10.30pm I felt it was time for bed, though it is only 9.30pm Japan time, I'm still on Sydney time. I pushed the bed button and settled in for a sleep. I wake at 1.30am Japan time (2.30am - Sydney) for a toilet call and again at 3.30am (4.30am - Sydney) when it was time to change out of pajamas and back into normal clothes. Six hours sleep is more than I manage most nights at home, so is impressive, given that I'd never been able to sleep on planes in the past - clearly there is an advantage to business class. Something that I wasn't sure there would be when we decided to travel this way.

Breakfast

Breakfast is served at 3.40am. A Fresh Fruit Salad, a green juice (Spinach and courgette and other good things) a bacon and egg roll and coffee. 

We then watch two videos one about prohibited meats and the second about prohibited plants and vegetables with two detailed videos in English and then Japanese. 

Hanada Airport

We land at 5am, it is an extremely gentle landing. We are off the plane quickly, another advantage of sitting up the front. On arrival we pass through a temperature body scan and a disinfectant spray before arriving at passport control.

We have to complete information on a disembarkation card before queuing for passport control. We were into the queue at 5.30am and out by 5.55am. A big queue but efficiently run.  We get a very posh stamp in our passport.

Then we are into the welcome area of the airport and pick up our luggage. 

Monorail

We then walk down to the Monorail Station, 

the ticket machine is in English as well as Japanese. I'd been advised to bring Yen in cash with me and having bearly used cash in Australia, it is clearly very different here. The machine only accepted notes and coins. The transfer ticket for the Metro and JY line to Tokyo Station, which is beside our hotel, was ¥690 each. £3.60. I couldn't find an option for multiple tickets. So went through the process twice, but it worked very smoothly.

The monorail is a good way to get a first glimpse of the city as dawn arrives. 

We arrive at Hamamatsucho station and change onto the JY Yamanoto line 

which arrives at 6.42am and go three stops to Tokyo Station where we arrive at 6.52am. 

We go through the Yashu North Exit and the hotel is 0.1 of a mile away from Tokyo Station. 

Shangri-La Hotel

We were greeted as we arrived at the hotel by a young gentleman called Dai. I kid you not, it made us feel welcome having someone called Dai greeting us. Though he pronounces it very differently and it is short of a Japanese name not David! Still, it amused me at the time. So bags dropped off, registration confirmed for check-in at 2pm and by 7.05am we are out exploring the city. 

Tokyo

Our hotel is a few 100 metres from Tokyo station, which as well as a station is a huge underground shopping mall, linked to another similar underground mall called Yaesu Mall.

We stopped at a Starbucks, it seemed to be strange to order an Americano having had to remember to call them Long Black for the last three weeks .

From Starbucks I went to the toilet, I can't say I'm a fan of toilet photos, but the technology in this toilet needed a photo.

I avoided pushing any buttons, but was surprised to find I had a warm behind - I thought the guy who used the stall before me must have been running a temperature, but it quickly became apparent that the seat was heated - something which turned out to be the case in every toilet I sat on in Japan!!!

We walked the streets in the area around the hotel, the route was something like this.

                            

Here are some of the places we passed:

We walked through a lot of large stores and began to get a feel for a city so shockingly different from Australia, that we had to keep stopping and checking we were seeing what we were. Everything is so formal, yet friendly here - queuing and waiting for traffic lights to change and then getting out of each other's way - it is like a different world.

Hibiya Park

We arrived at a place called Hibiya Park, opposite the Imperial Palace gardens. The park is 16-hectares and has a fascinating history. The area that is now the park was feudal grounds during the Edo period (1603–1867), which is the period when Tokyo emerged as the largest city, and then a military parade square in much of the Meiji era (1868–1912), the age of emperors. It was then converted into Japan's first Western-inspired modern park in 1903. Today, there are thousands of tall trees, beautiful areas of glass, flowers and a 500 year old gingko tree known as the "kubi-kake gingko".

We spent an hour and a half walking through the park, all the photos are on Flickr. Some of them are captured here:

At 10am we walked up from the park to the area where the main Government buildings are located. A tidier and more modern equivalent to Whitehall.

Including the Diet or parliament building, below:

Lunch

We walked back towards Tokyo Station and went to the famous Raman Street. Yes, a whole street of Raman restaurants competing with each other for business. The idea is that Ramen Street brings together many different types of ramen, so that you could wander it for a week and never run out of options. Each restaurant focuses on its special noodles, or its special broth or its special toppings, each shop adds its own unique twist to this iconic dish, serving everything from classic favorites to flavours you won’t find anywhere else. The queues outside each of the eight restaurants were long, we hadn't looked in advance, so weren't sure which one would be of most interest to us. We made out decision when we saw some lovely meaty bones being delivered to one of the places:

It was the restaurant called Soranoiro Nippon. 

 The specialism here is light soy sauce Ramen, which sounds good to us. So we join the eager people in the well ordered queue. Note in the photo below a set of rules, something that you quickly become familiar with when in Japan - everywhere has rules. Some have sub-sets of rules. 

after twenty minutes we arrive at the machine. As noted when we arrived in the country this morning, the machine is cash friendly, very efficient, but no option for credit or debit card payment. The food and drink options are all on the machine. You put in your note, make your choices and the machine produces little tickets for each item, and the change. 

The queue continues until you come to the guy on the entry door, he takes the little tickets, rips them in half, gives half to a colleague for the kitchen and returns the others to us. Once a space for two people, sitting side by side, becoame available we are ushered in. This is the Drew eye view.

Condiments are in front of us, these are pepper, vinegar and red chilli flakes.

As are water jugs and glasses

Drew has a glass of coca-cola, it is placed in front of him, the chopsticks are already in position on the table.

I had chosen Oolong Tea, I had assumed it would be hot tea, but it was cold, indeed chilled, but had no additives so turned out to be a very refreshing drink.

Then came the good stuff itself. We had both chosen the raman with meat with all the trimmings. This is chicken, pork belly with eggs, noodles and vegetables. It was a rich and delicious soup carrying all the flavours to perfection. As I mentioned earlier, this restaurant specialises in the soy sauce infused raman, but that flavour appears more as a background flavour than an in your face one, the individual ingredients shone out.

Lunch was complete by 1pm, so we walked around other parts of the mall. In addition to Raman Street, it includes a Gourmet Street and a Yakitori Street, with yet more restaurants of various types of Japanese food. 

Back to the Shangri-La

We arrived back at the Shangri-La and Dai called the lift for us as we entered and bowed profundley at us until the lift door closed, taking us to the 28th floor where reception is located. 

The hotel is on the top 6 floors of a large office block. The lower floors, apart from the hotel entrance lobby are all offices, but from floor 28 upwards it is all hotel.

Like the accommodation in K'gari, this hotel was booked for us by Trailfinders, as part of the deal on flights. To get the discounted flights we needed them to book one accommodation in each country. Well yet again they had done us proud, the Shangri-La, apart from its excellent position, is an amazingly delightful hotel. I don't normally include all the hotel photos in the blog, but I'll make an exception this time, so you can see what luxury we were treated too.

Yes, the chandeliers were that impressive, and yes the toilet and the rest of the room had an astounding range of controls. The shower also had a viewing window, though thankfully it had blinds, as we couldn't quite see what the viewing window's purpose was!! The views over Tokyo Station were stunning and we can even see the Imperial Palace grounds from the window.

We had checked in and were in the room by 2.05am. We chilled for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Given that this day really started yesterday, we both decided a rest and relaxation was the right thing to do. We had walked 16.4km since arriving in Tokyo, that 10.4 miles. So it is perhaps no surprise we are feeling tired.

We couldn't however resist taking photos of the amazing light show that were the buildings opposite us as dusk arrived at 5.50pm.

We were both dozing off from about 7pm onwards, but by 8.00pm had decided we couldn't stay awake any longer, so we went to bed and were quickly asleep.