7.3 JAPAN III

Himeji Castle (under restoration) and adjacent garden:

Main gate to the castle.

Castle under restoration.

This is what the tower looks like.
If not the most beautiful castle of Japan, certainly one of...

Adjacent gardens.

(A) 11/11 Takeyama with the French bicycle overlanders - (B) 13/11 Himeji Castle -
(C) 19/11 & 20/11 Shimoda - (D) 21/11 Yokohama Port Terminal T9 Mitsui Warehouse.

On a mountain road towards Yokohama : excavators on a steep slope, winched by two others on the edge of the slope. Works in progress to stabilize the slope.

Spot the two excavators on the slope.
Tea plants in the foreground.

Tea plants.

We were on our way towards Yokohama to ship the car to Belgium and had some spare days. So we visited the Izu Peninsula marked on the map with a lot of Onsen's. The amount of Onsen's surprised us a little and we decided to have a last hot bath before going back to Belgium. Next to the hot baths, steam was hissing out of the ground and also the sea was bubbling.

Japan is formed by 4 tectonic plates and the Izu Peninsula is the only part of Japan that is situated on the Philippine Sea Plate. This part of Japan started some 20 ~ 10 million years ago as a cluster of Submarine Volcanoes. Gradually the Pacific Plate pushed the Philippine Sea Plate against both others plates creating in the process an island that became later the peninsula.

Needless to say that this situation creates a lot of fire works.

Tsunami's: a nuisance while having a leak.

We also found out that on this peninsula, in the town Shimoda, the USA installed the first consul in Japan in 1854. Commodore Matthew Perry sailed to Japan in 1852 and demanded a Treaty of Peace and Amity and the possibility to trade. At that time feudal Japan was almost completely isolated from the rest of the world and this demand started a civil war between the conservative Samurai's (Edo period) and the progressive (Meiji period). The ports of Shimoda and Hakodate were subsequently allocated for trade to the Americans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_Matthew_Perry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_of_Kanagawa

We met Ken at a 7/Eleven. He is 32 and speaks very well English. He left his house in Fukushima and was migrating to the south while surfing the coast. Izu Peninsula is a surfers paradise and he was tasting the beaches. "I will try to live on one of the small islands in the south.", he said. Is the link hereunder the reason?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=040_1384817880

Probably it is, see the link hereunder, explaining that Fukushima parents with children are leaving the area. Probably only older people will stay while the place depopulates and becomes gradually empty?

http://enenews.com/even-residents-of-tokyo-are-evacuating

We explained that we were with our car, that we slept in our car and that we drove from Koewacht (city) through Russia, Mongolia, Siberia and Japan. He exclaimed: "Waaaah gipsies!".  A compliment from a "youngster" is always heart warming.

We planned our return to Belgium for Saturday 23 November. So we booked an hotel room close to Narita Airport and tickets with Aeroflot to Brussels. We hoped to see cities (Vladivostok, Irkutsk, ...) and places (lake Baikal, ...) we had been passing through, ... but from about 10.000 m. The shipping agent gave us a number of a warehouse in the Yokohama port, the total shipping price and the amount had to be paid in cash. So, we went to the post office of Shimoda and pumped the ATM with 3 different cards and since we had not enough Yen, we went to the counter and this time they were willing to exchange the last Korean Wong's in our possession. Out came the form and we were penning down name, amount, date, etc, ... The pen-pusher showed the empty case with "Address" and we explained that we were gipsies. Confusion! No address! Disaster! A phone call for about 10 minutes, discussions, and the head of the paper club with his English stuttering secretary came to our rescue. We suggested very politely an hotel from the Lonely Planet but this was a no-no and with this insurmountable problem, the boss with his secretary quietly vanished. The pen-pusher stood naked in the line of fire again and decided that the best defence was retreat and regroup. He placed the "CLOSED" carton on his desk and withdrew to the back of the office. We had to penetrate his line of defence to get our Wong's and USD back. Total confusion. This situation was not in the "Reference Book" under the chapter "Money Exchange".
In another postal office, in another town, we found out that you need probably a certificate that states that you are a zombie to be qualified for a job with the Japanese Post.
In a bank that had the permission to exchange money, we got the rest for the required amount, but it took more than half an hour before everything was checked. Money exchange in Russia is not a problem at all. In Japan it seems to be close to a crime and is handled with suspicion. Weird white people bring strange money into our country! The last relics from the Samurai era, when Japan was cut off from the rest of the world?

So after a last scrubbing and a soak in an Onsen, we headed for Yokohama port, Mitsui Warehouse, Area T9 on 20 November. We arrived in the afternoon of 21 November and in the night, slept between the containers and straddle carriers, next to the quay wall.

Next day the Carnet the Passage was stamped, we received our "PAID" stamped invoice from our agent, the car was loaded in a container and we were dropped of by our agent at the hotel in Narita, near the airport.

Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania,
Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, Rep. Buryatia, Rep. Yakutia,
Far East and Japan.
The End.

The "YM UNISON" transporting the container with our car. 

The container with the car arrived in Antwerp on 17 January and we went to the custom office to find out we had to be in the other custom office where they told us that one block down the road the custom office - Verification Import had the correct stamp for our Carnet de Passage. Assuming the latter officers knew what they were doing, I did not verify on the spot the procedure. Stamps were placed on the wrong page, but the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium did accept the Carnet as it was and three days later we got our deposit back on our account. Thank you sweet Laurance.

Inflating the tires after unloading "Cocotte" from the container, in Antwerp.
Since Mongolia and Japan, Christine adopted the typical Asian pose for a picture.