quicklizard: Last days in Japan and the first in Russia

Shibuya

Nowhere does Blade Runner quite like Tokyo. On my last evening in Tokyo I went to Shibuya, home of (apparently) the busiest exclusive pedestrian phase crossing in the world. I sat around, drank coffee, took photographs and watched the sun go down and the neon come on, all the while listening to the Blade Runner sound track. I think you need to be a bit of a geek to fully appreciate how cool this experience was.

Gold

The ferry to Vladivostok went from a small town on the West coast of Japan, on the way to which I spent a night in the nearby town of Kanazawa. I didn't have a great deal of time there but visited a shop which specializes in gold.

Takaoka Temple

The closest place to Fushiki with a hotel that I could find was Takaoka. Even the smallest of Japanese towns has something interesting going on and Takaoka is no exception, boasting an impressive open-air bronze statue of Buddha. Unfortunately, he was covered over with scaffolding and tarpaulins when I was there so I didn't get to see him but went instead to the lovely Zuiryū-ji temple.

The Ship

The fine vessel which carried me to Vladivostok.

The crossing was incredibly smooth. I had 3 non-Russians to keep me company on the 2-day crossing; two English and one Japanese, all planning to travel across Russia by rail.

Cars

All of the other passengers were Russians who had been in Japan to buy all sorts of things but principally cars. The ship was literally covered with them!

How they managed to get these into (and then out of) the swimming pool, I do not know.

Sunset somewhere in the Sea of Japan

Vladivostok

Some randomn photos of Vladivostok. Pretty much every car I saw was right-hand drive and hence almost certainly imported from Japan.

Submarine

Vladivostok has a well-preserved WW II sub which kept me entertained for an hour or so.

Station Ceiling

The ceiling of the railway station in Vladivostok. Moscow is depicted in the bottom half of the picture, 9289 km and 8 days of continuous rail travel away.

Views from the train

Siberia in Winter is truly magical and I spent much of the 3 1/2 day journey to Irkutsk watching the scenery go by. The most beautiful sights were at night when the snow-covered landscape was illuminated by an almost-full moon. Unfortunately, photos from trains rarely come out well...