Category Archives: Japan

Back in Tokyo

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As we reached Shibuya Station, we made our way to our new Airbnb place. The first impression was “let’s run away from here” but we gave it a chance. Thinking about it now, we should have done it.

The place was not really clean, to use a euphemism. The room had a couple of mattress put on the floor with a plaid on top of each, instead of a blanket. But we were definitely too tired and hungry to argue. We left our stuff there and went looking for a place where to have dinner.

There was a place we wanted to visit since we arrived in Tokyo: Genki – sushi. The name was quite explanatory. One of the top ranked cheap eats in Shibuya according to TripAdvisor. Nothing could have prepared us for what awaited us.

The place is one of the best engineering work of this century, where the performance indicator is the amount of human interaction needed to perform the task of feeding some hungry humans. They minimised this value, building a snake-shaped restaurant where each person has more or less an A4 paper of room at his disposal to consume his meal. 

The three food railways

Here comes the fun. The food is not served by employees, but using instead a three level magnetic operated rail. Basically, the customer orders his meal from the tablet located on the A4 paper sheet space he got assigned, magic forces materialise the slices of fish over the rice and promptly the food slides in front of his face (followed by a funny 8bit song). Overall it was a fun experience for us as we felt part of the Tokyo soul depicted in the documentaries. But we wanted more. 
After reading some articles about Tokyo nightlife we decided to take a peak at Roppongi. It was described as the most alive part if the city during the night, but none of the authors of those articles were probably non-American. 

As we took our first step out of the metro, we felt something was strange. Apparently the metro train was actually a modern piece of technology that teleported us straight in the heart of Brooklyn. Hookers, bouncers, and hip hop blasted from most of the clubs. Walking on the streets we were repeatedly asked in an native Bronx slang to “join the party”.
After few days of complete peace of mind we felt not safe anymore. We walked fast in the direction of the Tokyo tower, which was visible above the buildings. In 10 horrible minutes we were out of Roppongi.

Tokyo tower as seen while walking away from Roppongi

We kept walking for another 15 minutes and reached the Tokyo Tower. It looks a lot like a downsized Eiffel Tower, but with all the tall buildings placed all around, it has something more than its bigger version.

Tokyo Tower from below

After taking a couple of pictures we walked to the closest metro station and went back home.
We woke up quite early as we wanted to visit an Owl Cafe. Unfortunately when we got there it was still closed. We then tried to book the entrance in the number one Owl cafe in Tokyo, but there were no available ticket until the coming Sunday. No owls for us… Instead we made do with a more modest program: we went to visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, a free alternative to going up the Tokyo Tower.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

From the 48th floor we looked down on all the expanse of Tokyo. It is amazing how wide it is. We couldn’t make out the edge of the city. On the same floor where the observatory is, we found a souvenir shop. We were quite impressed to find panties for plastic bottles. Japan weirdness hits once again.

Breathtaking view from the Government Building

Higher than the surrounding skyscrapers

As lunch time was approaching we went to Ikebukuro, at 鳥良商店 南池袋店. For the first time since we were in Japan we didn’t have to eat prokaryotes! Here we ate chicken, both fried and grilled, and it was super tasty! Highly recommended!

Super yummy lunch

Done with lunch we walked to the local Pokemon Center. We didn’t really like it as it ended up being just an overpriced shop.

Charizard, Pikachu and… Saramon?

The only good point was the luxurious toilet next to it. We made good use of it…

The toilet controller

Relieved of our weights we took the metro to go visit the Imperial Palace. It was a delusion. We could not enter (nobody actually can) and as we were taking some nice photos of the sun setting over the palace garden, we were asked to leave.

Sunset on the Imperial Palace’s garden

We decided to pay another visit to Harajuku for a quick walk and visit some souvenir shops. As we were there we took another crepe at the same place where we did the first time we came here. After that we transferred to Akihabara to spend the evening.

Best crepes in Harajuku

Dwelling in Akihabara we saw a lot of maids on the road running away from anyone who was trying to take pictures of them.

Mega electronics shop in Akihabara

We decided to pay a visit to Don Quiote, a store selling everything, from food, to electronics, to sex toys… Here we found a plushie of a cat so detailed it had a butthole. Pure gold!

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Tired, we went back home. On the way we decided to eat something, so we hit 7eleven and bought some sushi, cold hamburger and a “piadina”.

Tomorrow we will take our first Shinkansen! Can’t wait to ride the famous bullet train.

Stay tuned for the next post.

Kamakura: the green escape!

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We arrived in Kamakura that it was already night. Luckily the hostel was close to the station. It was actually behind the rail road.

Despite being so close to the railroad we didn’t hear any train noise during the night.

The hostel was small, well hidden, with a I-am-not-going-there entrance.

The inside was actually really nice. The room was small but quite clean and at the right temperature with a comfortable bed.

Our true fake dream bed!

The toilet was furnished with the latest technology toilet with a bidet embedded in it… Amazing Japan…

After taking a shower, we left our stuff in the washing machine and we went out looking for a restaurant where to have dinner.

We found the SatoNoUdon open and, communicating with gestures, we ordered our food.

Going back home after dinner we walked in an empty park where we found a “fire” tree.

The entire city was completely empty and Sara decided that was the perfect time to take a picture seated in the middle of the walk.

Exhausted we went back home and slept.
Early in the morning we went hiking to the Zeriarai Benzaiten temple which entrance was through a cave.

As we exited the rocky tunnel we found a small area covered in statues and torii with a little shrine and another cave where to wash you money (some kind of ritual).

Immediately we realised that most of the statues and buildings had something in common: on all of them was impressed the triforce simbol.

Here we also bought a booklet to collect the stamps from each shrine we visited, and got our first stamp.

We followed a short hiking path and ended up on a asfalted road. We got lost. Fortunately we found a couple of bicentennial grannies which helped us find our way back to the shrines. Everything without understanding a single word of what the other was saying. Human being truly are amazing.
Back on track, we walked under dozens of small torii to reach a shrine surrounded by thousands of small fox statues. The name of the shrine was Sasuke (no sharingan here).

After getting our stamp, we continued on the hiking track. We walked for 2 km in the middle of nothing but bamboo, cherry and other trees.

We finally got on an asfalted road and aimed for the Kamakura Daibutsu.
After paying a entrance fee of 300¥ (less than 3 euro), we went in to admire the budda statue which is the second tallest bronze statue in Japan.

Behind the buddha is kept a Buddhist garden: no grass, no flowers, just rocks and pebbles. Preferably black or gray. Thanks.

Leaving the Seated budda we walked to Hasedera Temple.

The shrine complex was really old and the landscape were amazing. The site was populated by various statues which looked quite happy to see us. 

Happy statues in Hasedera

The complex also offered great views over the sea and a small bamboo forest.

Bamboo trees

More bamboo trees

The temple also hosted the Kyozo, an incredible bookshelf storing Buddhist script which can be rotated.

Rotating bookshelf 

We we should not forget to mention the main temple, an absolute astounding structure.

Also the little Buddhist garden next to the entrance was worth the visit.

Buddhist garden

So far so good, we had enough of temples and decided to take a break and go to see the ocean.
The ferocious wind kept our enthusiasm low and pushed us to the closest train station to catch the first train for Kamakura main station.

7 eleven provided a quick onigiri bite (our stomachs were scaring off people’s with their rumbles) and our JRPass came again handy to reach Kita-Kamakura without any other ticket. 

Kita-Kamakura is the Northern part of the city, and it is home to many temples. One afternoon wasn’t enough to visit them all, and we spent approximately one and a half hour in Engakuji.

Engakuji Sanmon gate

This temple was simply amazing. It hosted national treasures and the views of the meticulous maintenance of the inner Japanese gardens were a total blast.

It is ranked as one of the most important Zen Buddhist Temple complexes in Japan. Among the national treasures there is an ancient bell sites on the highest point of the temple. Trust me when I say i won’t go there anymore!

Just halfway up…

Sara found the time to take a picture with a pair of girls wearing a kimono.

As we left Engakuji we walked to the city center to have lunch. We found a small restaurant, nothing special, but not bad either.

With our bellies full, we went back to the hotel, collected our backpacks and went to catch our train to Tokyo.

Glimpses of Tokyo

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Sure enough, we woke up. Thanks to the 2 alarms, plus 2 backup alarms, plus a snoozed one, we unlocked the “You didn’t oversleep” achievement!

We took our time to pack our backpack again, and went out to have breakfast… at the Tsukiji Fish Market. Before you ask, yes, we had breakfast chewing sushi, sushimi and other similar things… so much for our Italian background.

Before going we left our baggages in a locker at Shibuya Station: only 500 yen (~4.30€) for an entire day (24 hours). There are lockers in all the train station and are used by tourists as well as local people.

Free from our burden we made our way to Tsukiji: from Shibuja we took the Yamanote line to Shimbashi. From there we walked 15 minutes and got there.

Tsukiji outer fish market

Tsukiji is the biggest fish market in the world. People come here as early as 3 in the morning to bid on tunas, and more than 65 thousand people work here.

Just think about it: an average Italian city’s population works everyday in a fish market…

It is divided in two district: inner and outer market. The inner market is where the fish is sold in batches and the tourist are not allowed to enter until 10 AM. This is due to the fact that people walking around aimlessly may be dangerous for both themselves and the weird, totally safe “carts” that dwell in the area. The so called “turrets”.

Tsukiji three wheels cart

The outer market, on the other side, is open as early as the tuna bidding is over. It is basically a maze of narrow streets which run between shacks. Every shack is a small shop selling everything concerning fish, vegetables, fruit, dried food, and knives… I was so tempted to buy a personal forged and engraved one.

Ok. Back to food. We tried some delicacies while walking around the other market: first we got a couple of squid and octopus skewers, then we went for steamed dumplings.

Super tasty fried octopus and squid

Steamed dumlings

Then we saw some people lining outside a still closed sushi shop. We decided to line. Around 10AM it opened and we were allowed in. We ordered a combination of sushi, made just in front of us by a laughing, happy old man, and took a couple of plate from the conveyor belt.

Almost-alive-fresh sushi 🍣

When we felt satisfied we went out and kept walking.

After a while we encountered a little shrine on the east of the outer market.

Here Sara participated in the washing hand ceremony, and rang the bell wishing for something.

Small shire in Tsukiji

Soon after we went inside the inner market, being careful to not being run over by the “turrets”.

It is a true fish market, where fish is cut alive, made in pieces, boxed and sold. No place for weak of stomach.

Tsukiji Fish inner market

We didn’t spend too long here. The workers were already washing the tables and packing their stuff. No point in staying there too long.

We decided to visit Ueno park, as we read that the Sakura blossoming was still going on there. Well, it wasn’t a complete lie: we found two trees (in a entire park) with some pink petals on its branches. So much for full blossoming.

Firts blossomed sakura

Anyway, Sara looked enthusiatic. After all we came here for this, mainly.

Inside Ueno Park we went visiting the Toshogu Shrine, which was close to a Pagoda

Ueno Park Pagoda

Leaving the shrine we met a loud, huge, and friendly crow which landed on a lantern “Craacking” to the passerbys.

This fella here was bigger than a cat.

Going back to the park we found the second Sakura tree and asked someone to take us a picture (yuuu).

Picture under the Sakura

After this emotional Sakura adventure, we went to Asakusa. We decided to walk in the city instead of taking the metro, and we found some beautiful and characteristic views.

This intersection looked like a still image from an Anime

When we got close to Senso-ji we were so hungry that decided to have a cheat meal: melon pan with vanilla ice cream and a portion of caramelised apple pie. To be sure if they were tasty I had to try  both before handling them to Sara.

Melon pan and Apple pie

In Senso-ji we visited a Buddhist temple were we got a journal were to collect the stamps from all the temples we are going to meet during our journey.

Buddist Temple

Next to the Buddhist temple, stands the Senso-ji temple.

Senso-ji temple facade

Hanging at the entrance there is a huge lantern-like-thing.

Going east from the temple we walked through Nakamise, a street full of souvenirs and snack shops.

Nakamise

Last thing we visited today before living Tokyo was Shinjuku Gyoen. We should have come here before… This park was full of blossoming Sakura.

And not only those. Japanese garden, Taiwanese pavilion, ponds… It was beautiful.

Japanese Garden

Taiwanese pavilion

A duckload of Sakuras

We finally had what we came looking for.

Especially Sara…

…

Unfortunately we came here too late. The park close at 4PM so we were forced to leave.

We went back to Shibuja to collect our backpacks and had a coffee at Starbucks, with view on Shibuja crossing.

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After 10 minutes of rest, we took the train to Kamakura, the next destination of our trip!

First day in Tokyo

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Yesterday night, after we found home we took one of the greatest showers human beings ever experienced.

Home entrance


“Living room”


Bedroom

After getting clean we headed out for dinner. Being just few minutes walking from Shibuja crossing we went right there.

Despite being quite late, the place was incredibly full of people. The Shibuja crossing truly is amazing: waves of people walking in every direction crossing an intersection.

Shibuja crossing

Next to it is placed the Hachiko statue. During the day this is a hot spot for tourist, but after the sun sets it becomes a meeting point for the Tokyo youngling (being so close to Shibuja district).

Entering Shibuja district

Hungry we decided to look for a place where to have Ramen! All the shop have a vending machine where you select your meal, pay, and get a ticket. You just sit, give the ticket to a waiter and eat.

Ticket vending machine

After eating we walked around Shibuja for a while.

At last we headed home. Once got there we planned for the following day and went to sleep, setting one alarm at 7:30 and a backup alarm at 7:45.

The alarm went off. We didn’t wake up.

The backup alarm went off. We didn’t wake up.

A meteorite could come down and crash on Tokyo. We wouldn’t woke up in any way.

We woke up around 1PM… Yeah! Lunch time!

The choice fell on Ichiran, one of the most highly rated ramen place in Tokyo. Once again we had the select the meal on a machine and give it to a server.

Ramen at Ichiran

I must make a note here. I don’t really like the experience as you eat on a personal boxed table with a small window from where you are served by someone you can’t even see the face. Human interaction = 0. 

We removed the wall making a double box!

Apart from that the ramen wasn’t bad at all. My only concern was on the spyce-ness. I’m quite used with spicy food, so I ordered normal spicy flavour. I was so wrong to underestimate Japan and I’ve got punished. I cried basically the entire meal. Thankfully I ordered a beer to help me with the ramen.
With our belly full we were finally ready to explore Tokyo. Next stop Yoyogi Park with Meji Shrine.

From Shibuja station, taking the Yamanote line we jump off at Harajuku Station. Before entering the park we had a walk on Takeshite Street, probably the most touristic place we’ve seen since we are here in Japan.

Takeshita Street entrance gate

Here we found happiness in the shape of a crepes. With our cravings satisfied we went to the park.

At the south entrance we were welcomed by a Torii gate.

Yoyogi Torii Gate south entrance

These things are huge. Just look at how small are the person at it’s base. And before you ask, No! they are not just short because they are Japanese…

Inside the park we found this collection of barrells of sake wrapped in straws: they are offered every year to the enshrined deities by many sake brewers all around Japan.

Barrels of sake

Next we found another Torii…

Another Torii

… which took us to another smaller Torii…

Golden Torii

… which took us to the Meji Shrine.

Southern entrance to the Meji Shrine

Inside the shrine there was a sacred tree surrounded by a rack full of wooden slates by prayers. All the slates are taken once a day to the monks during the morning ritual. This will help the wish and pray to come true. Maybe…

Prayers and wishes around the sacred tree

From here we went to Shinjuku Gyoen Park, which is one of the most rated park in Tokyo. Unfortunately it was closing down as we were approaching. 16:30. Thanks Obama!

So we decided to go to Akihabara. This is the place where all the gamers, otaku, anime lovers come from around the globe.

Akihabara

You can get lost here between Arcade and shops. We jsut visited a couple of stores before going back to Shinjuku for dinner.

Some stuff

We took the Yamanote line once again, getting out at Shinjuku station, and went to Zauo Fishing. This place is amazing. You get the chance to fish your own dinner and, if you are lucky enough to fish something you can choose how to cook it.

We have been lucky enough to fish two seabream and asked the staff to cook them in all the 4 way possible: sashimi, simmered in soy sauce, grilled and fried.

Seabream fried and simmered in soy sauce


Grilled seabream

Useless to say, we didn’t waste anytuing, and everything was delicious.

The happy fisher with her pray

With our bellies full we went to another pub for a beer and then we headed home.

It has been a full (half) day. Time to sleep and get some rest.

See you tomorrow Tokyo!

Finally Japan!

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Not much to say about the flight from Dubai to Tokyo.

The airplane was huge. Two floors full of smelly, tired looking people. Personally I slept most of the time (after spending one hour playing Zelda). Food was served twice, at seemingly random times, fucking up completely our already messed up biological clock.

Finally we landed! Narita Airport! The gateway to our Japanese dream. And the portal to another 30 minutes wait, among an horde of equally smelly and tired looking peasants.
Doesn’t matter. We can stand everything now! 

We are in Japan!

And we can’t wait to take advantage of a toilet and, hopefully, have a shower.

Approaching Dubai

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Emirates…

I’ve got nothing else to say. One of the best companies to fly with.

We got to our seats in a two chairs configuration. Nothing fancy, but we have plenty of room for our legs.

On our seat, an incredible entertainment system with thousands between movies and TV shows keeps us from getting bored.

Some of the available movies 

The remote, which could be used as a controller for games.

After being offered a welcome on board drink, we decided to keep ourself busy. I opted for watching a movie, Assassin’s Creed looked like the best option, while Sara decided to erudite herself watching documentaries on wild life.

After two hours from departure we’ve been offered food. Vegetarian for Sara, beef for me. Both delicious. Especially the little chocolate cake.

Vegetarian menu

Rice with some tasty side dish

Lentils & beans

The marvellous meat menu

Beef, mashed potato, and something else

This was not food. I consider it a mistake.

Ok. Enough with food. A short flash back to this morning in Bologna…

At the check-in desk we realised that we are definitely too confident with our packing skills.

We managed to underload our baggages, squeezing the entire needs for two weeks vacation in 20 kgs… total! 10 kgs each.

We barely scratched 30% of the max load we could carry.

Well, on the bright side, we have 40 kilos worth of souvenirs when we go back home. 😂

Now, back to the trip.

We experienced a bit of turbulence while traveling over Iran. Not a big deal, but it can be annoying for the ones who are not used to it.

Approaching Dubai we had the chance to admire it from above. Unfortunately we could not take decent pictures, but the Palm island is quite visible, as well as all the city and coast line. Truly amazing.

Shitty snap of Dubai by night

The airplane landed perfectly on time in Dubai, where the temperature is a staggering 31 degrees. I’m so glad we don’t have to leave the airport.

Once on the ground we wondered searching for a shop were to buy a t-shirt. The previous 6 hours on the plane took a heavy toll on my armpit and the previous shirt had to be sterilised with fire🔥.

While shopping for the T-shirt we took a look at some stuff. Probably going to buy something on the flight back home.

Goldish Pottery

Silverish Pottery

Boxes and more pottery

Say hi to my new super fancy 15$ t-shirt

Time to lay down and rest a couple of dozens of minutes while we wait for the next flight.

Getting ready…

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First thing you wanna do when you travel sporadically is plan everything.

And when I say everything I literally mean everything.

Fortunately Sara graduated in the end of February (she got a perfect 110/110 cum laude in computer engineering), leaving her plenty of free time to plan this trip. 

We created a map on Google MyMaps with all the potential cities we may touch during our vojage. In a text document we shared our finding regarding each City, places to visit, hot spot, tourist traps and so on.

These two documents were followed by a time plan reporting the exact days spent in each City, the address and Google Maps link of the sleeping place and the name of our host, if any.

TripAdvisor forums were a big help to find the best areas where to sleep, enjoy nightlife (which we are aiming to experience at best :D) and be easily connected.

We spent time searching for the best places to eat and sightsee, exploiting our JRPass as much as possible. We decided to get the JRPass after checking this website, which is extremely useful to verify whether getting the pass is actually worth when compared with buying single ride tickets. This website together with hyperdia are the two most useful websites to get infos for traveling by train in Japan.

Using Google sheet, we created an easy to understand timeline to better plan the movement between cities.
After days of feverish research we came up with a map, which we called Golden Route, showing all the places we are going to touch while traveling around Japan.

We won’t bother you with the packing process as there are thousands of website explaining how to do it…

Sara’s “exploded” bag

Our bags and backpack all packed and ready to go!

With the baggages ready the only thing left to go was ride to the airport! 

Shameless selfie…

Ahoy Captain!

An easy 3 hours drive took us to Bologna airport.

After a quick lunch we are ready to board for the first stop of our vacation…

It’s boarding time!

Looks like here in Bologna Emirates needs their customers to take a bus to board the plane. Well, SELFIE TIME!

Riding the bus…

Boarding!

Finally on board. Row 49. On the airplane tail. Not too bad.

Ready to fly!

Time to switch off the phone. Next update in 7 hours from Dubai!