The Far Side of the World, Pt 13

June 1976, and Tony Reavley's in Japan killing a final few weeks before returning to the UK after three years away. Still, he's got enough time for one last letter home, pondering the astonishing goodwill of the average Japanese lorry driver and the likelihood that he'll have to swap teaching for tatting when he arrives back in recession-hit England...

Nikko, Japan

15-06-76

This will be the final episode of the SE Asia saga from this end. We boarded the ferry for Cheju Island where we spent 6 days; we got away from the Korean tourists who'd been plaguing us like locusts and spent our time bussing round the island and staying in small coastal villages. The food continued to be largely inedible and we maintained our nutritious diet of dry bread, boiled eggs, apples and ice lollies. The weather was patchy; a fair bit of rain and quite cool. The island was reminiscent of England. Dry-stone walls made from volcanic rock; the sound of the cuckoo heard after a gap of three years since June '73, and another familiar call, the pheasant. We stayed in small yo-in-soks, sleeping on the floor and paying about £1 a night, and then dashed down for the ferry to Shimonoseki, Japan, where we arrived on Saturday May 22nd.

Have been here three weeks and three days and really enjoying it though it's very expensive. However, we're surviving and saving money by hitch-hiking everywhere. The Japanese are very friendly people: polite, courteous and generous. We seldom wait more than twenty minutes for a lift and saving on fares compensates for the price of food. We stay in YHAs as hotels are out of the question with the cheapest around £6 a night. The YHAs aren't exactly cheap at between £1.20 and £1.50 a night. Our lifts range from cars to lorries, and unlike Australia and New Zealand, lorry drivers often stop for us. Their generosity is almost embarrassing at times. Nine times out of ten, our driver will buy us a drink from one of the many roadside vending machines selling soft drinks and superb canned fruit juices, and very often they buy us a meal as well. They insist on paying for everything. Very few of them speak even passable English and communication is difficult. We invariably take lifts not knowing where on earth we're going to end up.

The hostels are luxurious by British standards. Very clean, with colour TV; we've yet to see black & white. Huge population of 110,000,000 and a preponderance of very large, sprawling, ugly cities. Roads are good, cars have radios and cassettes fitted as standard equipment, and as in New Zealand and Australia, the people enjoy a far higher standard of living than back home. However, they haven't got black pudding, Banks's, Ron Bentley or Tipton Harriers, so roll on July 17th!

Stopped at a number of scenic spots mostly by lakes; the area could easily have been Scotland until one was confronted with a volcano belching out smoke. We climbed a couple and explored the craters with the steam, boiling mud and other oddities. Arrived back in Honshu several days ago and have been hitching down the east coast via Aomori, Miyako, Matsushima and finally here at Nikko. Spent the morning looking round the shrines and temples (Buddhist and Shinto), for which Nikko is world-renowned. Tomorrow, we hitch to dreaded Tokyo where we hope to spend as little time as possible. Still plan to be out of Japan on 1st-4th July and then 10-14 days in Taiwan before flying home via Hong Kong-Bangkok-London.

Will try and get up to Tipton and see you some time after the Olympics.

Best wishes,

Tony

P.S. Hear there's a shortage of teaching jobs, but I'm pretty good at sorting out scrap metal!