Category: Oyaji Life

Last year, I went to Europe for the first time after COVID-19 outbreak and quite enjoyed. In the past few years, I had to repeat short trips. However, since the trip was a relatively long duration and visited locations without much of direct flights, I had to be creative in making travel arrangements. I liked working on travel plans, so the whole process was a fun indeed.

Perhaps they have fundamentally opposite nature, what I enjoyed during the trip were the religious sites and the liquor. In Bulgaria, I stayed in a Bulgarian Orthodox Monastery. Greek Orthodox churches were worth seeing for different architectural styles from the Bulgarian. In addition, both countries have cultures of distilled spirits, and I enjoyed them. In Germany, where the last country I visited, I was able to visit an old-fashioned beer hall, even though I was in Germany for less than a day.

As a whisky lover, Scotland comes first in my mind when I think of European distilled spirits, but it has already been about 15 years since my last visit there. The industry was in recession when I had interests on whisky for the first time, but in recent years it has become very popular and the price has skyrocketed. Furthermore, Isle of Islay, a famous Scotch whisky producing island, used to be a remote island where seemed almost the farthest land on the earth. Now, the island has become a famous tourist destination, and I cannot find it as interesting as used to be.

Geographically, next to Scotland is Ireland, where is also a famous whiskey-producing country. I am not familiar with Ireland, but I know Irish whisky prices are not as high as those of Scotch. Looking at map of Ireland, I see that it has scenic coastlines and many ruins of old Celtic churches. Moreover, perhaps I have strong images of the chaotic times due to the influence of the novels I love to read, but I think that the country is full of cynical, gloomy, and alcoholic middle-aged men.

Cynical, gloomy, and alcoholic.

This would be the perfect place for me. Checking on flights, I found that if I take a red-eye flight on Japan Airlines to London Heathrow, I can get to Dublin in the next morning. On the way back, I can fly or take ferry & train to London, stay overnight, and take another red-eye flight back to Tokyo. The schedule seemed pretty good, I made a reservation for the airline ticket.

Normally, I would have completed all the arrangements as soon as possible, but things were different this time. My insomnia had been worsening in the first half of this year. Despite I had too much free time in late nights, I had not done anything for several months after I got the airline ticket. In fact, I checked few points such as distillery tours or ways to travel from Ireland to London during such late-night times. However, they did not go any further. I had wasted time without making any reservations or even making any plans at all. One of reasons might be a rental car to get around Ireland, as I did not like driving. Yet, it was almost the first time for me to do nothing on travel plans for such a long time.

Around that time, I had to take a training session at work, it said insomnia was not good for mental health. I have been lethargic at work from time to time, but I should have taken as a bad sign that I was lethargic on travel. It may be necessary to take some countermeasures against insomnia that has worsened. As a new approach to my insomnia, I decided to change the destination of my summer vacation.

I needed to go to a place where I could feel positive. Let me go to somewhere refreshing and full of dazzling sun, opposed to cynical, gloomy, and alcoholic.

If I am looking for dazzling sun in Europe, I should look for it in southern part of the continent. Since I visited the Aegean Sea last year, the Mediterranean Sea or the Adriatic Sea would be a good idea. Few years ago, I visited Dubrovnik, Croatia and took a day tour to city of Kotor in Montenegro. I remembered that I liked Kotor but did not have much time there. I should be able to expect dazzling sun of Adriatic Sea.

I checked the airline tickets again and found that All Nippon Airways offered red-eye flights for both out/in Japan. For the most efficient way to get around, I decided to go to Dubrovnik first, and then take a bus to Kotor. On the last day, I fly from Podgorica Airport in the capital of Montenegro to Vienna, and catch returning flight to Tokyo Haneda.

On the first day of summer vacation, I arrived Dubrovnik via Frankfurt. A clear sky over the Adriatic Sea was supposed to be waiting for me, but the sky was full of clouds. When I arrived Dubrovnik, it was the first time I had seriously looked at the weather forecast. It said that cloudy or rainy weather was expected throughout my stay.

I left my luggage at the short-term apartment and immediately went to Walls of Dubrovnik while there were still few blue skies. The Walls is the most famous tourist attraction in the Croatia’s the most famous tourist destination. The entrance fee was quite high, 35 euros, or equivalent more than 5,500 yen owing weak Japanese yen.

After paying the admission fee, I heard a thunderous roar from somewhere. Looking at the land side, there was still blue sky, but looking out to sea from the top of Walls of Dubrovnik, it was cloudy, and what looked like a rain pillar could be seen in the distance.

Then, a thunderstorm came. It was a heavy rain shower with strong winds. There was no place to avoid them on Walls of Dubrovnik. I just had left my suitcase at the apartment and came to the Walls without doing anything, fortunately I still had my umbrella in my backpack. I found a place with a slight shelter from the wind. I ended up standing under torrential downpour for about an hour, my umbrella was broken and I was soaking wet on the first day of arrival.

Finally, the rain stopped and I resumed sightseeing of the Walls of Dubrovnik. The first round was not much for photography, so I decided to go on second round. Apparently one admission fee only allows one round. Considering the weather forecast was not promising for the next few days, I thought I should have done two rounds on this day even though I had to pay the entrance fee again. It was highly likely that first 35 euros/5,500 yen was complete waste of money.

The initial choices were Ireland where was cynical, gloomy, and alcoholic, or, Adriatic Sea where had refreshing and full of dazzling sun. In order for me to turn over a new leaf, it seemed like an easy choice. However, this visit to Adriatic Sea might not much different from going to Ireland. In fact, it might have been worse because the expensive entrance fee was wasted.

I have not been feeling well since the end of last year. At first I thought that I had entered a “bad luck cycle” that is common in my life, but things did not improve and my physical condition was not good either. The cause of all the problems seemed to be insomnia, according to my acupuncturist, which was highly likely owing to my high heart rate even while I am at rest. The results of medical checkup showed that there was no problem with the heart itself, so it must be an autonomic nervous system problem. I decided to purchase an Apple Watch and monitor my health status.

After a 4-day trip to Taiwan in February, the situation was improved. My heart rate dropped and my insomnia somewhat eased. However, the golden time was over after three weeks. Hay fever triggered another bad cycle, things were even worsening due to natural factors such as typhoon-class low air pressers coming almost every week and harsh temperature fluctuations in this spring. The insomnia worsened as my physical condition was weaken.

My acupuncturist and I share the same view that fundamental solution to my autonomic nervous system problem is quitting my job, but that simple solution will likely to lead other problems. It seems to me that an effective strategy getting better would be to go on a trip.

It was around the end of March, but I did not think I can wait until Japan’s Golden Week holidays in May. I decided to go to Hotel Keifu on the outskirts of Hakodate, which I had planned to visit in late fall. I have decided to make the trip advance. Since the purpose of this trip was self-therapy, one-night trip would be too short. After some research, I found out another hotel named Hotel Hakodate Hirome-so, also on the outskirts of Hakodate. I also found that When I stayed two-nights in a row, they would provide a shuttle service between accommodations. Since there is a favorite high-end sushi restaurant in Hakodate where I may visit at the end of the trip and I have heard that no hay fever in Hokkaido, it would be a perfect escape from reality.

Even though I omitted spring break period, there were no seats available on frequent flyer award ticket for the flight leaving Tokyo on Saturday morning. In fact, the plane itself was nearly full. Rather than having a seat in the middle of three-rows of seats at a fare close to the full amount, I decided to take the Hokkaido Shinkansen even if the ride took four and a half hours. For about the same fare, I could ride in the green car (upper class). Since I would be sleepless at night, it would be good to get a sleep while on the Shinkensen.

I bought a beer at Tokyo Station for a morning nightcap (or whatever called in English), but before I could finish it, I lost consciousness around Ueno Station, and when I opened my eyes a few seconds later, I was already in Aomori. I didn’t even notice Sendai or Morioka Stations on the way. By drinking a stale, room-temperature liquid, I passed through the Seikan Tunnel with my consciousness often losing, then arrived Hokkaido Island. With this much sleep while moving on the Shinkansen, the green car ticket would have paid for itself.

When I arrived in Hakodate, the weather was clear and the temperature was hot. It was so hot that it seemed a different city where I had been freezing in a snowstorm a few months back.

I took a streetcar from Hakodate Station to Jujigai. After a lunch at Gotoken, a favorite curry restaurant, we boarded the hotel’s shuttle. On that day, the Tsugaru Strait had a calm seascape. After arriving at the hotel, I went out to see the nearby Todohokke fisheries port and lighthouse.

I went to bed early on that night, perhaps tired from two hours of walking around, or perhaps from the good effects of the self-therapy.

The next morning, I was in bad condition. Was the effect of the self-therapy an illusion?

I went out for another walk to take some pictures. It was warm again that day. As I walked, my eyes were caught by a cedar tree with a disturbing brown color – bad sign for cedar pollen.

I guessed that the reason for my poor condition that day was hay fever. This was completely unexpected. I heard that only birch trees could cause hay fever in Hokkaido Island, but it might be a different story in southern Hokkaido. It is true that about 20 kilometers across the Tsugaru Strait from the hotel is Honshu Island. Therefore, it would not be surprising if there were some cedar trees growing in the area. Unlike the Kanto area, where pollen dispersal was just about to over, this was probably the peak of the season in southern Hokkaido.

I have hay fever only from cedar trees, not from birch trees for sure. I thought I would not have hay fever, and did not bring any medicine with me. Moreover, there was no drugstore in the neighborhood in remote area of Hakodate.

Even so, thankfully my hay fever did not get much worse, perhaps because there are fewer cedar trees in the forest, or perhaps because there are fewer air pollutants.

When I returned to Hakodate city central in the afternoon of the last day, I finally found a drugstore. I thought I would be okay to return from Hakodate without any medicine, but the last and biggest event of the trip, the dinner at high-end sushi restaurant was planned just before my return flight.

I rushed into the drug store. There was a shelf of nasal inflammation medicine, but as much as seen in the Kanto area. I wondered if the demand was rather low. Still, the medicine was the same.

I finished up my trip at the sushi restaurant without a dripping from my nose. On the return flight, there were seats available on the award ticket, I took the last flight back to Tokyo. The weather was fine during the trip, and I returned to Tokyo extremely satisfied.

As I was sitting on the express bus from Haneda Airport to Yokohama Station, my Apple Watch beeped just before the Yokohama Bay Bridge as the bus entered Yokohama City. My Apple Watch was set to sound an alarm when my heart rate exceeds 120 beats per minute at rest. By the time I arrived at Yokohama station, it had calmed down to about 100. There was no way I could sleep when I got home in that state, and my insomnia returned back.

Is a three-day trip not enough time to deal with insomnia? Or do I need to have a passport for a self-therapy trip?

It is possible that the idea of traveling as self-therapy is an illusion. However, I would like to avoid the fundamental solution to my autonomic nervous system problem, so I need to devise a different coping remedy.

In order to come up with a new strategy, I need to reexamine my life from a new perspective. In order to make a fresh start, I decided to go to travel first.