Planes, Trains and Ferries

We pick up the story in Osaka, another massive city around 500km south of Tokyo. As usual we arrive by train right into the centre of town but this time with a hotel in mind and one that's on the right line for the Ferry terminal. It feels funny today as this is the first time in two weeks we have to be somewhere at a specific time and so a city tour will have to be quick.

 

The best way to describe Osaka is shopping, neon, shopping and rain (well, it was the whole time we were there). At night with the rain hammering down it looks like the city in Bladerunner, and according to our guide book the film is based on this same city.

 

So up the next morning and as usual navigator Coates did a grand job of guiding us via the subway to the correct place to collect the transfer bus to our boat.

 

The ship is a cross between a passenger ferry and a cargo ship and unlike everything else in Japan was delayed by an hour while they completed the loading of the containers. We stood and watched this ballet of trucks and large containers and they were loading a container with one fork lift truck every 45 seconds (and the Japanese efficiency returns).

 

I know that we were supposed to be backpacking around Asia which in most people books means cheap but we decided early on to get ourselves a cabin due to the possibility of sea sickness.  This cabin was nearly double the price of the others and boy was it worth it. When we arrived on the ship we had a little look round and the other cabins on offer were very different. The cheapest being a large room with just mats, no beds, sleeping 15 people or rooms sleeping 4 with no privacy and everyone smoking in their beds - not pleasant. So in our eyes cheap at half the price as they say.  The room was luxury even compared to some of the hotel rooms we have have stayed in Japan.

 

The journey was split into 3 parts:

 

Part 1: Sailing through the Japanese islands.  Very different to the UK islands with far more green down to the waters edge, very tranquil with ever bigger bridges coming into view. I was told that one of these was the longest bridge in the world.  I have no idea which one as they all looked massive.

 

Part 2: Open sea, full day sailing through this region between China and Japan, a little choppy but OK. We used this day to full effect and rested, not realising just how much we had done in the past 2 weeks.

 

Part 3: Awoke this morning to see hundreds of ships all sailing in the same direction, towards China. Several hours passed and you could see the huge cranes of the container ports that line the Chinese coast, and ever increasing number of ships.  Once we entered the mouth of the river you could just begin to see the skyline of Shanghai. A further 3 hours and one of the most spectacular journeys into any city you could imagine. Imagine sailing up the Thames and docking right outside St Pauls cathedral - definitely the way to enter China.

 

 

Next step, the dreaded immigration process and all the possible issues with a Westerner entering a communist country.  A stamp and a smile and we were in - oh didn't expect that (at worst could have been a rubber glove job!)

 

So the big questions I know you are all dying to ask....did we get sea sick?  No, Mike S you would have been proud of us. Did I partake in the ship-borne Karaoke?  No I could not be bothered and the selection was all 80's music (I will leave the jokes to you).

 

Next Shanghai and China, this is going to be interesting.