Two tourists and a typhoon
Japan has suffered a lot this year from freak weather causing huge devastation across the country. I was fortunate enough to avoid the worst of it, and this post is just my account of travelling in a region through which a typhoon was passing.
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In September I went on a three day trip to Kanazawa and Shirakawago (about 200 miles from Tokyo) with my friend, Kate. But little did we know that Typhoon Jebi would join us too. And as third wheelers go, Jebi was pretty annoying. So here are 10 steps for surviving a trip when you accidentally end up near the eye of the storm...
1. Start the trip with romance and food
Our trip started just as any trip should: with a rendezvous at the Romancecar Cafe at Shinjuku Station. Love can thrive even at the world's busiest train station at peak time on a Monday morning. Wellll, not really. The Romancecar is just an underwhelming name given to one of the trains that starts at Shinjuku Station and they’ve built a bright orange cafe at the end of the platform because nothing says romance like orange.
After meeting at the Romancecar Cafe, we carried on together to Tokyo Station for our Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kanazawa and bought ekiben (bento boxes that are specifically sold at stations (eki means station in Japanese) to have for lunch on the train. I bought one shaped like a Shinkansen (and it meant my present for Wil from the trip was sorted even before I’d left Tokyo - talk about being a pro wife). I later realised that my ekiben matched the train I was on - 10 points to Gryffindor!
2. Laugh off weather warnings whilst enjoying a day out
We got to Kanazawa as planned early on Monday afternoon. The sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky. We visited a mediocre castle, a Japanese garden that did not disappoint, a bigger than expected old villa, and a few different historic neighbourhoods with beautiful old architecture that were like a time capsule transporting you to the Edo period. Kate also befriended a dog whilst I observed from a safe distance. We had matcha at a traditional tea house, kagigori (shaved ice dessert), ice cream and pizza. All whilst laughing and appreciating how lovely our husband and boyfriend were to text us throughout the day to say that a typhoon was coming to the region but that didn't get in the way of our grand day out...
3. Stay awake in a night of terror
We had set our alarms to get up early on Tuesday morning to go to Shirakawago. Except I didn’t really go to sleep. No, not because of typhoon related terror but totally due to self-inflicted terror. I stayed up worrying that we were going to get murdered and had nightmares. No joke. But don't worry, fretting about getting murdered in the night is not something I do frequently. In fact the last time I did did so was on honeymoon in a coastal ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) where I worried that some crazy person who roamed along the coast in the dark would kill us, or some insects would get us or we'd get swept away to sea in a storm.
After not much sleep, I got up on Tuesday morning and regaled Kate with my nightmares. She said that I twitched once in the night at which point she was probably regretting inviting me along on her trip.
4. Read the signs - literally
Luckily Kate was still willing to put up with me and we carried on as planned and boarded the bus from Kanazawa to Shirakawago, a little bleary eyed (or at least one of us was) and with our sugary bakery breakfast in hand. The 90 minute journey went by quite quickly and we got to Shirakawago just before 11am and we were picking up maps and guides to the town from the bus station.
All was well until I saw THE SIGN SAYING ALL BUSES BACK TO KANAZAWA HAD BEEN CANCELLED THAT AFTERNOON BECAUSE OF THE TYPHOON AS IT WAS NOT DEEMED SAFE TO TRAVEL. It took me a few seconds to digest this and I then went over to find Kate to tell her the bad news that the last bus back was now around 12:30pm, whereas we had planned to head back to Kanazawa around 4pm! I tried to buy tickets for the 12:30pm bus only to be told that the bus was already fully booked but there were some seats on the 11:25am bus back to Kanazawan - this was the same bus that we had just arrived on! But we were so relieved that I'd seen the sign and that we had at least managed to get seats on a bus back that we didn't care about the ridiculousness of only getting 30 mins to see the town.
5. Try speed-sightseeing (like speed-dating but with more selfies)
It had already started to rain - a storm was definitely brewing. But we set off on our mad dash around the town to see what we could and testing how far we could get. It was obviously good to inject a bit more jeopardy and risk missing our bus by not making it back in time. No one else seemed to have our sense of urgency but we frantically zipped around some of the town and took some obligatory selfies to mark the trip before boarding the bus back to Kanazawa.
6. Keep calm and carry on (but probably not to the extent that we did)
By Tuesday afternoon the weather forecasts were a little clearer on which way the typhoon was headed. We knew it was definitely coming towards our region but luckily it did not look likely that Kanazawa was going to be at the centre, but it would still be affected. With the typhoon looming, we got off the bus in Kanazawa and wandered over to the art museum with a peculair swimming pool instlation. As it turned out a lot of people had picked the indoor option that day so the museum was pretty packed. Next, we headed to the samurai museum, near where we were staying. But to our dismay, when we arrived there was a sign saying that it had closed early due to the impending typhoon. It was a similar story when we tried to have lunch at a few restaurants.
It was starting to rain quite steadily and heavily but luckily we managed to find a burger place that was open and (for once) had a vegetarian option that was actually pretty good. We gobbled down our burgers. We then popped into a nearby chocolate shop that was also miraculously still open - every typhoon has a delicious chocolatey silver lining.
After enjoying a slice of chocolate cake we ventured out in the rain again to explore the samurai district and even had a little boogie in the rain because at this point we had the streets to ourselves. We walked past a Starbucks and saw a sign saying they too had closed early. We thought the storm must be getting real if even Starbucks had decided to close and maybe we needed to take the typhoon a bit more seriously. By this point the wind had actually picked up considerably and we were really struggling with our brollies, and in fact it was easier to just put them down and get wet instead.
7. Seek salvation in a 7-Eleven and bakery
It was about 5pm and I thought we should start to head back for the day and pick up something for dinner. There is no shortage of convenience stores like 7-Eleven in Japan and they were almost certain to be open even if other places had started to close. For the first time raiding a 7-Eleven as if the end of the world was approaching was justified.
This was not the first time Kate and I had ransacked a convenience store - we had a picnic on the beach a few months ago and the shop assistant had assumed we needed seven sets of chopsticks when in fact we were the only two diners. Anyway, we left the 7-Eleven with full bags and within the 10 minutes we had spent inside the shop the weather had got considerably worse. It was definitely time to get back to our apartment, but not before a quick pitstop at a small independent bakery which we were shocked was still open. I now had French toast and an apple pastry to add to my mountain of food from 7-Eleven. We all need comfort food at times of distress, and some of us need a little more than others. And some of us will milk any situation to acquire as many carbs as possible.
8. Remember that bunting can raise your spirits
We safely made it back to our apartment and were glad to be indoors but a little uneasy. We turned on the TV and the news was constant, horrific coverage of the devastation caused by the typhoon across the rest of the country (with commentary we could not understand). The howling wind and exclamations of the Japanese newscasters did not make for a pleasant soundtrack. We turned off the news but the wind continued to strengthen with the rain lashing against our windows. We had been sitting on Japanese style floor cushions but decided to drag them to the other side of the room away from the rattling windows.
We had a long night ahead of us even if we did slowly drag out our feast. But luckily I had come prepared with indoor activities. In this case it was bunting supplies, obviously. No, bunting supplies are not on my list of travel essentials but I happened to have craft materials in my suitcase because Kate and I were both going to a mutual friend's birthday later that week and I was coordinating the decorations. I had thrown in the bunting supplies in case we needed something to do on one of our journeys and I could have hardly imagined it would be the perfect relaxing activity for a stormy night. So we both sat there making bunting and decorating bunting flags in gold and dog patterned washi tape (Japanese masking tape that comes in a multitude of patterns and our friend loves dogs) all whilst listening to a comedy podcast to distract ourselves. It was all a tad surreal if I'm honest.
The wind was still strong and a slamming door kept on detracting from the calmer ambience that we had tried to create for our craft session. The slamming door turned out to be the maintenance cupboard outside the apartment - something must have been broken as it just wouldn't stay closed. But I had just the thing: washi tape! And we couldn't believe that it actually held the door shut. I bet it is the first time that washi tape has been used to keep a door shut during a typhoon in Japan but we had to make do with what we had.
9. Sleep it off
The wind had started to subside and it seemed like the worst of the storm had passed. We decided to head to bed around 11pm and hoped things would be looking better in the morning.
You will be glad to hear that I slept really well, because I was assured that no one would bother to come out and murder me in a typhoon!
10. Return with a vengeance
Thankfully we woke up to a lovely calm day with not much evidence of destruction in Kanazawa. We would be returning to Tokyo that evening but knew we had to return to Shirakawago that day instead of spending more time in Kanazawa. And return we did, safe and sound to glorious sunshine and blue skies in Shirakawago.
Setting the scene for as I wrote this blog:
Location: This post took me ages to write as I did in a really bitty way and at various times over multiple weeks - on a train to Tokyo Station, whilst waiting for a friend in Shinjuku and then finally at home whilst watching the first Bridget Jones film - shockingly I still hadn’t seen it.
Weather: Still autumnal but we turned on the heating for the first time a few days ago.
Soundtrack: The film and then finished it off listening to the Happy Folk playlist on Spotify.
Bonus fact: My friend that I went on this trip with is Kate Rowland and she is a fantastic jewellery designer and illustrator. You can visit her webiste and shop here: https://katerowland.com/shop/.
If you are hunting for Christmas presents then definitely check out her shop. I love everything in there so if anyone wants to get me something you cannot go wrong with one of Kate’s creations!
