Cairns - Cascadian Abroad

Yokohama

October 5, 2024January 23, 2015 by Robert Haddan

Yokohama was high on my list of places I wanted to visit while in Japan. I really knew nothing about it and the desire was probably due to it being home to the Yokohama Baystars baseball team, Japan’s equivalent to the Chicago Cubs (think “lovable losers”).

Last weekend, we popped down to Yokohama for the day. Located a short train ride south of Tokyo, it’s actually the most populated municipality in Japan and second most populated city after Tokyo. Due to its development as a port town in the 1800s, Yokohama is a melting pot of Pacific cultures.

Our first stop was the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum, billed as the world’s first food-themed amusement park. On the two lower levels, a 1950s-era Japanese street scene has been replicated in authentic detail with signage, music and a variety of ramen shops. A less-era-authentic magician performed tricks for the large crowd while blasting modern electronic music from his iPhone.

The wait times for each shop are on a chalkboard by the main stairs. We arrived around noon and already some of the shops had 30 minute waits. Waiting that long for ramen in Japan seems a little silly since there are literally 20,000 shops in Tokyo with no wait, but it’s a little like waiting in line at Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland. The wait is part of the experience.

We picked NARUMI-IPPUDO, a French bouillon/Japanese dashi hybrid for our first course. The mini-sized bowls with medium-sized noodles and light broth were the perfect appetizer. In response to the variety of tourists who come through the museum’s doors, most of the shops offer at least one vegetarian bowl and one halal option for the increasing number of Muslim visitors. Guilt-free ramen is the best ramen of all!

Spicy Miso Ramen — The delicious spicy miso ramen at Ryu Shanghai

Lunch #2 involved one of the aforementioned 30 minute waits. Ryu Shanghai offered a unique spicy ramen with thick noodles in a rich, flavorful soup. The added dollop of the spicy miso sauce on top was enough to open up the sinuses on a cold day.

Kamome Shokudo was one shop caught my attention in the brochure. The original shop washed away in the 2011 earthquake and tsumani that decimated northeastern Japan. The shop has been replicated in the museum, giving their Sendai-style ramen a second life.

Puroresu — A 1950s-era television broadcasts old puro resu (professional wrestling) matches

Era-correct props dotted the museum’s basement floors. A payphone booth was made even more authentic by the black electrical tape holding the cord to the handset. An old black and white television console showed 1950s professional wrestling matches (side note: the sport’s popularity in the 1950s used to draw large crowds to watch the matches on big screens in Tokyo). A stained vending machine rolled out small glass bottles of Coca Cola. Plenty to see while waiting in those long ramen lines.

Yokohama Bayfront — Yokohama Landmark Tower; Cosmo Clock 21 ferris wheel; Yokohama Bay Bridge.

Next, we headed south toward Tokyo Bay. Every once in awhile, we get those “doesn’t feel like Japan” moments. The area around Tokyo Bay certainly qualified as one of those times. The massive Landmark Tower, Japan’s second largest building, anchors the skyline and casts a large shadow over the Nippon Maru, a clipper-style boat-turned-museum that was used as a training vessel for the Japanese Merchant Marines from the 1930s to the 1980s.

Looking toward the bay, you can’t miss the Cosmo Clock 21, the centerpiece of the Minato Mirai 21 (MM21) shopping center. Built in 1989, it was the world’s tallest ferris wheel for nearly a decade and, thanks to the digital clock on its face, it still stands as the world’s largest timepiece.

Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse — The Red Brick Warehouse served as a customs building in the early 20th century, but now hosts shops, restaurants and cultural facilities

From MM21, we followed Kishamichi Promenade along the bayfront. It felt more like the Cairns Esplanade in Australia than anything we’ve seen in Japan. A running event was taking place on the day we visited, so we shuffled alongside those athletes braving the cold weather along the bayfront, ending up at the Red Brick Warehouse. The event overtook the grounds of the former customs warehouse, which was restored in the early 1990s and is now (of course) a retail center.

Yokohama Chinatown — The gates to Yokohama’s Chinatown district

From there, we ventured inland toward Yokohama’s thriving Chinatown district. Thousands of Chinese immigrants arrived at the port in the 1800s, bringing with them food (including ramen) and customs that still thrive in Japan today. More than 250 shops are fit into several city blocks, making it one of the world’s largest “Chinatown” districts.

Two ornate and impressive temples appear between the pork bun shops in Chinatown. Guan Di Miao was founded in the 1860s by immigrants as a central spiritual site as well as a tribute to Guan Gong, a well-respected general during the Han Dynasty in around 220 B.C.

The Mazu Miao temple is the newest temple in Chinatown

The second temple rivals all of the great structures we’ve seen in Japan, yet was built less than a decade ago, officially opening in March 2006. The city had planned on building a large apartment complex on the site, but the community was concerned about the impact such a building would have on the area. They negotiated with the developers and eventually purchased the land, building Mazu Miao in its place.

Less than two hours by train, Yokohama deserves another day trip in the near future. Would love to hear from anyone who’s visited about what we missed the first time around.

Cascadian Abroad :45—Yokohama

Great Barrier Reef

August 29, 2014 by Robert Haddan

Cairns is a charming coastal town, but it’s not exactly a tourist hotspot on its own. The real draw for Cairns is that it is the gateway for the Great Barrier Reef.

The world’s largest coral reef system, the Great Barrier Reef is actually a living organism. It can be seen from space. It’s both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. All that said, the beauty of the reef up close and personal is still understated.

Snorkelers — Geared up and ready to head into the water!

We scheduled two separate trips to the reef; one departing Cairns for the outer reef and another from Port Douglas (about 40 miles north of Cairns) bound for the Low Isles.

Bumpy Ride — The ride to the reef was a bumpy one. A good number of riders ended up seasick on the back deck.

The first trip from Cairns went out about 27 nautical miles to the Flynn, Pellowe and Thetford reefs. The weather was rainy and windy, resulting in some pretty choppy water. As we boarded the boat, we were encouraged to purchase seasickness medicine from the bar. Everyone chuckled with the certainty that WE would not be susceptible, but with the added information that all but six of the prior day’s 40 or so passengers got seasick, most popped the pills. Regardless, about half the passengers spent a good portion of the trip on the back deck filling those little white paper bags.

Fish — The water was crystal clear at the outer reef. We could see the fish swimming under the boat.

All the misery of the ride would be forgotten as soon as we reached the outer reef. As the guides on board said, nothing cures seasickness like getting in the water. The beauty that lay just beneath the water’s surface would cure most ailments.

Floating on the surface of the Coral Sea, the underwater paradise opened up below us. It was like a real-life Finding Nemo with a world of fish in every shape, size and color. More than 600 species of coral provided an underwater maze to explore. The coral gets its rainbow of colors from the algae that makes a home within it. “Bleaching” or whitening of the coral occurs when the coral gets stressed and expels the algae. These are real, living organisms.

We spent about 40 minutes at each of the three sites, guided along the way by the marine biologists who doubled as tour guides on board the boat. Along the way, we were followed by a humphead wrasse who befriended the boat seven years prior and follows it between the different reefs. In exchange for food, the fish poses for pictures with divers and snorkelers.

A couple days later, we headed north to Port Douglas for a sailboat trip out to Low Island, one of the two islands that make up the Low Isles. It was a much slower, smoother trip just a few miles offshore. Low Island has an active lighthouse and the former keeper cottages are now used as research facilities by the University of Queensland.

Snorkeling around Low Island offered a completely different experience. The marine biologists were amazed at how low the tide was, likely a result of the supermoon that occurred the same day. As a result, much of the coral was above water level. As we snorkeled around the edges of the island, we often found ourselves crawling along the sea floor more than floating above it. We were literally on top of the coral in some places and ended up with a front-row seat for one of nature’s most amazing creations.

Shark and Turtle — We had several visitors around the sailboat, including a shark and a sea turtle

As we headed back to shore, we were visited by the island’s natives. A black tip reef shark circled the boat several times and a green sea turtle floated lazily by before taking off on a fast swim toward the island.

On the first trip, there was an underwater photographer who captured some of what we were seeing and while it would have been great to have an underwater camera, there’s something to be said for being able to focus on the beauty and not on capturing the perfect picture.

The two trips were so unique that it’s hard to pick a favorite. If you ever have the opportunity to visit the reef, I’d highly recommend doing something similar or maybe even adding in an introductory scuba dive. The coral and marine life were so unique in each location, I can’t imagine it would ever get old.

Cairns City Tour

August 19, 2014 by Robert Haddan

When we’re out adventuring, we often find ourselves asking the question “Are we old people?” It’s usually to do with the company we keep, but I don’t see it as a bad thing. “Old people” are usually past the “have to” part of their lives and in the “get to” part that’s so much better. Although, we do enjoy early dinners and I like to complain about the noisy kids on my lawn, even though I don’t have a lawn anymore.

We had a free day in our Cairns schedule and decided to book a half-day tour of the city. Of the 16 or so folks on the tour bus, we were by far the youngest and two of three identified by the driver as “those of you who use Facebook.” Nonetheless, we made some new friends and had an amazing day.

Our driver/guide, Eric, has lived in Cairns for nearly 30 years and was a wealth of information about the city’s history. He filled the time between stops with stories and visuals of local legends, such as the draw for big-game fishing in the 1970s that brought the likes of Lee Marvin and John Wayne to the then-sleepy port town. One of the visuals was a preserved cane toad in a jar that was brought in to clear out the beetles that were eating the sugar cane, but instead just multiplied and took over the town. Fans of The Simpsons will remember this story from the “Bart vs. Australia” episode.

We started our tour by winding our way through the streets of downtown Cairns. The city has a long and interesting history. It was founded during the Australian gold rush in the late 1800s, but was nearly abandoned 20 years later after the gold dried up. It wasn’t until Japanese developers started buying up land in the 1980s that present-day Cairns began to take shape.

St. Monica's Stained Glass — A portion of one of the stained glass windows at St. Monica’s Cathedral

The great thing about these tours is that you get to see things that you’d never discover on your own. About 15 minutes into the tour, we pulled into St. Monica’s Cathedral, the Catholic church in Cairns. From the outside, it’s a fairly plain building, but inside is one of the world’s largest themed stained glass displays. The work took nearly seven years to complete and is a modern take on creationism of Australia’s northeast coast. The colors were magnificent in the midday sun.

Scones — Delicious scones with jam and cream and a “cuppa” at Cafe 88

After winding through a bit more of the downtown area, including the newly refurbished hospital and the local cemetery (remember, this is an “old people” tour and apparently old people enjoy these things), we stopped at Café 88. If we’re being honest, this stop was one of the reasons we booked this particular tour. We were treated to tea, coffee and authentic scones with jam and cream. In ‘Merica, we’d call these scones “biscuits,” but whatever… they were awesome! We sat with a couple from Western Australia and another from Adelaide.

Full on scones, we headed to the Cairns Botanic Gardens to walk it off. Tour guide Eric takes his job seriously and had clearly boned up on his garden knowledge, walking us through the planted side of the garden and explaining what we were looking at along the way.

The Botanic Gardens are a mix of both regional and international plants with a little local wildlife mixed in. Early on, we saw a brush turkey’s giant nest and later on saw said brush turkey trying to liberate a tourist’s lunch. We learned the local names for plants, like the tattoo plant, which plastered itself against a nearby tree, or the rain tree whose resident bugs have a knack for expelling drops of water on unsuspecting onlookers.

The next stop was purely for photos as we headed to the edge of a hill overlooking Cairns. From here, we could see modern day Cairns as well as the trails formerly used by the cane sugar farmers and the dried riverbed that ran through prehistoric Cairns.

Back aboard the bus, we headed for Barron Gorge. The Kuranda railroad line runs alongside the gorge and was built entirely by hand in the early 1900s. The BYOS (bring your own shovel) operation was a major source of jobs during the era. The workers also discovered a way to lug their beer kegs to the work sites from Cairns, taking turns rolling the kegs up the previously completed tracks.

Kuranda Railway Workers — Photo from the State Library of Queensland shows workers taking their beer keg up the hill while building the Kuranda railroad

We finished our day in Palm Cove, one of the picturesque northern beaches, before making the hour-long trip back into Cairns.

This would have been an ideal tour for our first day in town as we saw several sights that we wished we could have gone back to see, including the gondolas riding over the treetops into the tablelands. Regardless, I’m glad to have had the opportunity to get a taste of the real Cairns.

Cairns, Australia

August 13, 2014 by Robert Haddan

It wasn’t long after we found out we’d be moving to Japan that the idea of a trip to Australia came to mind. From the U.S., an Australian vacation is an expensive proposition, including a flight approaching 20 hours and several thousand dollars of travel expenses. However, from Tokyo, the northern coast of Australia is a little more than seven hours away.

Over two weeks, we’ll have visited four Australian cities: Cairns in Queensland, Adelaide in South Australia, Melbourne in Victoria and Sydney in New South Wales. We’re already a week into our journey as I’m writing this on the flight from Cairns to Adelaide.

The bushy Foxtail Palm is popular with tourists

Cairns (pronounced “Cans” by the locals) is on Australia’s northeast coast and is home to the Great Barrier Reef. At first glance, it’s a small tourist town, but as the week went on, the treasures of Cairns began to present themselves.

We stayed in the northern end of town, which is connected to downtown Cairns by the beautiful Cairns Esplanade. Running alongside the bayfront, it features wonderful greenspaces connected by a paved walking path that was usually most crowded in the late afternoon. It was clearly designed to act as Cairns’ backyard. Free exercise equipment, beach volleyball courts, kids play areas and free BBQ/picnic spaces line the Esplanade, leading to the Lagoon, a free community swimming pool and lounging area.

Rusty's Markets — Fresh veggies were among many treats at Rusty’s Markets in downtown Cairns

The downtown area is roughly five square blocks tucked between the Esplanade and the harbor. The obligatory souvenir shops, tour kiosks and a variety of beachwear stores border a wide selection of international eateries. The area comes alive on the weekends with a Saturday Market on the Esplanade featuring only locally-made goods. Rusty’s Market is a large, indoor farmer’s market that runs Friday through Sunday. Primarily a place for the local farmers to sell fruits and veggies, there’s also an abundance of local crafts and plenty of snacks. The Cairns Night Markets are open after 5 p.m. every night and offer another opportunity to snap up souvenirs.

Cairns itself is sandwiched between two World Heritage Sites. To the east lies the Great Barrier Reef. On the west is the Atherton Tablelands, home to the Daintree Rainforest. According to one tour guide, the rainforest once covered the entire Australian continent, but now only covers one-half of one percent of the country.

Further north are several beaches leading into the small town of Port Douglas. We spent part of a day walking along Trinity Beach. The unique beach sand was made up of larger flakes of rock and salt, which sparkled like diamonds against the tan backdrop.

Seashells — A sampling of the gorgeous shells sprinkled throughout the beaches of Cairns

The tropical sea life that makes its home on the Great Barrier Reef left a treasure trove of classic shells on every beach. As with everything on the Reef, it’s okay to look, but we had to leave these beauties behind.

Wallaby Fight — These wallabies were in a boxing match that deserved its own pay-per-view special

Near one of the bus stops back to Cairns, several wallabies made a home in a large field. I’m sure we weren’t the first to confuse these guys with kangaroos, but a tour guide straightened us out later. These guys were even putting on a classic ‘roo boxing match for us.

Over the next couple weeks, I’ll go into more details of our trip to Cairns, including a couple very memorable trips out to the Great Barrier Reef and a local tour of the city as well as our adventures to come in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.