Some readers of the CO News may be familiar with the Netflix travel documentary/road trip comedy Travels with My Father.
British comedian Jack Whitehall and his father Michael travel around the world together.
Jack is a jovial, adventurous chap and his dad a rather stuffy former talent agent from London.
The amusing dynamic of the pair in some really interesting places and situations make for a few good laughs.
Travels with my Father did come to mind last month when, as a recently turned 70-year-old, I met up with my 35-year-old son Hamish for two weeks biking and exploring in southern Japan.
Hamish has lived in East Asia for three years and is a relaxed and very competent traveller in that part of the world.
Armed with an itinerary I’d spent some months organising, we arrived at Tokyo Central Station along with the one million others who pass through it each day.
It quickly became apparent that a charged up and connected phone was an absolutely essential travel item with eSim for unlimited data, a Suica debit card in your Apple wallet, an ability to use Google translate and maps in pressure situations, and various QR codes for train tickets and checking in to hotels.
Another essential item in the day pack was a power bank for the phone when it threatened to run out of juice as things would have quickly gone south without it.
How different from my first
O.E. back in the 1980s … an AA map book and Michelin Guide book was about it.
Needless to say, as the senior member of the pair, born 30 years before the internet was even thought of, I wasn’t quite as slick at navigating around Japan as my son.
To his credit, Hamish was a considerate and patient travel companion.
Google translate proved its worth a number of times including at an izakaya, or corner pub, in Hiroshima when a scan of the menu with translate revealed fried knee cartilage, frog and sparrow.
While planning the trip I was aware that Japan is popular as its exchange rate makes for affordable travel and it is considered an exotic but safe and friendly holiday destination.
For that reason we just made a passing call into the Instagram hotspots of Tokyo and Kyoto and headed for the “real Japan” on the beautiful islands of the Seto Inland Sea and Shikoku.
Basing ourselves on centrally located Omishima Island, we rode the popular Shimanami Kaido bike path traversing huge bridges that island hop across the sea to Shikoku.
The real gems though, were found on the ferry-access-only islands of the Kamijima Islands and Tobishima Kaido bike route which stretches west towards Hiroshima.
Small ports and villages with quirky local cafes, golden beaches, rugged forested peaks, oily calm seas with fishing boats, coastal shipping and locals who love to stop for a chat.
Finishing with a short road trip around southern Shikoku Island we discovered a quieter more rural Japan with 70kmh limit roads, river gorges and coastlines which could easily have been the Buller River, Kaikoura coast or the Pacific surf beaches of Northland.
Strikingly apparent in that part of the world was Kaso or Japan’s ageing and rural depopulation crisis with empty houses and mainly older working people.
Over the two weeks there were plenty of “Jack Whitehall” moments which added to the fun.
I did note however, that Hamish, once he had successfully escorted me to my plane home, quietly upgraded to a business class seat on his homeward flight, had a celebratory whisky and put his feet up.
AloJapan.com