Closing in on Tokyo

Since I wrote last, from Sendai, I’ve travelled a day, from Sendai to Nikko, gone sightseeing in Nikko with C.G., and travelled yet another day. (I should write about Nikko too, sightseeing with C.G. for a day, and describing the YH I stayed at, but tonight Saitama was closer to the surface.)

I make a lot of plans, and I change some of them myself, others, like this one, was changed for me. I had planned to stay in Nikko two full days in order to get rested before entering the metropolis. Unfortunately for me, the youth hostel I stayed at in Nikko could only house me 2 nights, forcing me to change my plans. Since I had to find new accommodation I felt I could just as well move on, even though I’d love to stay another day or two in Nikko’s fresh air and peaceful scenery, though the town is a tad too touristy (wow, lots of T’s!).

Waking up this morning, I had no idea what so ever where I would be heading, so the only plan I had was to head down to the tourist information centre, buy some internet time and research what options I had. I wanted to go closer to Tokyo, but not all the way in to the city itself. Since I’m staying with Tommi’s sister its no good appearing a day too early, and if I went all the way into Tokyo I could just as well stay, find accommodation, and then it would have been much easier to book accommodation for all of the days until my family comes, but I can’t really cancel my arrangements with Tommi’s sister either, because both she and Tommi has gone through some trouble (fixed this whole arrangement) for me. And it would be *really* short notice if I cancelled now too.

So, having researched miscellaneous train schedules and other tourist information on the net, I decided to go to Saitama, even though my Lonely Planet says absolutely nothing about the ‘ken* at all. (*-ken = Prefecture)

(Another option I considered was to go out to the coast to Mito, in Ibaraki-ken, and see the famous garden and the plum trees (which are blooming at the moment) but I decided it would be too long to travel out there since I wouldn’t be able to spend any time there to go sightseeing since I have to be in Tokyo tomorrow; Mito was too far to travel to, just to return without seeing anything. Zannen desu ne…)

Not having a real map of Saitama, and only a slightly misleading ‘YH of Japan Map’ and no guiding from Lonely Planet I decided to go to Saitama City –which is on my YH-Japan map, but I realised after a while that Saitama City isn’t really a place, but rather an area consisting of several small/medium sized cities. Tokyo is the same (I’ve been told) but at least you can go to a station ticket office and buy a ticket just to “Tokyo station”.

When I tried to tell people I was going to Saitama they looked at me sideways, over the brims of their glasses, etc, and asked me; “where in Saitama are you going?” Me being clueless answered “Saitama-shi” –whereupon they kept their gaze level and asked “Saitama-Shintoshi?” …“Yes? ... (I assume so since it’s called Saitama-something)”. And when I got there and asked the tourist info for a cheap hotel; they sent me to Omiya-koen –which took me back exactly the way I came from, and then onto a sideline into the suburbs.

I got to my tiny hotel, where the staff asked me to forgive the “oldness” of the building and it’s facilities, but coming from a rather interesting YH in Nikko, tatami rooms and spacious (shared) baths and toilets seemed a luxury (still does 8hrs later). I was able to check in early, stash my luggage in my room and walk to the park where I spent the rest of the afternoon, walking around the various paths, teasing the ducks (by hanging about their regular feeding area without feeding them), smelling the plum flowers, playing with photographic challenges (light, noisy backgrounds etc.), watching the other park visitors (and their dogs or families or both).

Now I should re-pack my backpack again, leaving possibly useful changes of clothes on top… 22:47… I’d better get going if I want to get any decent amount of sleep…


(Anyway, even if Saitama-ken is not even mentioned in Lonely Planet, there is touristy stuff here too. I concluded that Saitama and surrounding areas fall in the shadow of Tokyo in areas like tourism, and but they try to keep up with the competition, at least on a local scale. Saitama-ken is known in Japan for making the most traditional Hina-dolls, and there’s a Cartoon museum and a Bonsai garden among other sights. Saitama-Shintoshi (lit. Saitama New-City) is marketed as “the new modern face of Saitama”, with bold modern cityscapes and architecture. There are pretty places and museums of new or old things like most places have. In Saitama-Shintoshi they even have a “John Lennon Museum”, isn’t at least that worth a mention in Lonely Planet? )