Kyoto: the Western Capital

Leave a reply

This morning we woke up late and we realised that we forgot to describe what happened yesterday after we arrived in Kyoto.

After checking in our nice Airbnb in Gion we decided to go out and have dinner, since we’re always hungry as you already know from our previous posts.

Our room for the upcoming 4 nights

Toilet with sink on top

We walked around Gion and eventually ended up in the Geisha district close by. We had the chance to see some of them walking around, taking taxis or getting off them. Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures since it is prohibited in that district, but believe me they really are beautiful creatures.

As for dinner, we decided to follow a blog article from Inside Kyoto which suggested a sushi place called Ganko sushi.
Even though the place looked quite touristic, we spotted a lot a locals when inside. Sara was exhausted and took a child menu with grilled eel, while I went with a adult sushi set.

Antonio’s sushi set

Sara’s children menu

Detail of Japanese Sushi

On the way home we stopped on the Family Mart just below our apartment to buy something to chew in the morning for breakfast. As we hit the bed Sara fell immediately asleep while I stayed awake until 2 to write the previous post.

When we woke up we had nothing planned. Kyoto is said to contain the essence of Japan and we didn’t even know what the main attractions are beside the thousands gates in Fushimi Inari.

Walking towards the Kyoto station to catch the Nara line to Fushimi Inari, we noticed an huge pagoda, so we took a detour.

The huge pagoda ended up being one of the most important attractions of Kyoto, the Ninenzaka temple complex.
The road is an imperial era shopping street. Is narrow, crowded, and with hundreds of little shops on the sides exposing their stuff. To make matters worst, a legend has it that if you slip and fall, you’ll be dead in 2 or 3 years.

We sweetened the pill with some matcha and sesame ice cream

We’ve never been so carefull while walking a street.
We paid our 100¥ (90 euro cents) each to visit a sort of underground level of a minor shrine. The tour was in complete darkness. We felt totally blind, in the sense that we had to find our way out in a pitch black corridor until you find a sacred stone. When you finally find it you have to touch it and make a wish, and when you go up the stairs it’s said you have been reborn.

After this mystical experience, we went to the main shrine. Useless to say, we didn’t feel reborn at all.

Small pagoda next the shrine

We moved to the main shrine. We initially thought it was still under renovation, but the forest of vertical and horizontal trunks around the temple were actually part of it.

The “work in progress” bamboo structure

Among the tourist, there were lots of student groups visiting the site. We were stopped by a group a group of them. Shily they asked if they could ask some questions, and we agreed with no hesitation.
They asked us where we are from, and to tell them things about our city. And told us something about theirs. When we were done, to thank us for the time we dedicated them, they offered us a present: a small plastic fun with a message written in one side.

So sweet…
We decided to try heading to our initial destination again, and on the way we bumped to another main Kyoto attraction!

This is the biggest torii we’ve seen we are in Japan

It is said to be the Vatican for every Buddhist monk, what a luck! Kyoto has more than 1600 shrines, so it’s very easy to find some on your way to something else.

Heian Shrine

The shrine is Chion-in inside Maruyama Park. We were welcomed by some female monks and invited to see some kind of ceremony inside a smaller temple.

The Sanmon, gate to Heian Shrine

Inside there was a monk repeating some mantra, such a shame we didn’t get a word of what he was saying, but the old lady sitted next to us looked very absorbed.

We then wandered inside the park for a while, visiting Heian Shrine, eventually ending our walk at the station.
This means it’s Inari timeeeeee!

But first, snack with a jumbo pork bun…

The icon of Kyoto, and maybe the most crowded place of all the city!

Believe me or not, this is the first (and probably the last) attraction in Japan we didn’t have to pay to enter.

It felt like taking a tourist shower and then entering a tourist steam bath with a hiking course in it.

The number of people attracted by this place is amazing. Especially if you think that half the visitors won’t even make it to the top of the mountain.

Before starting the torii walk we were greeted by to big Kitsune (fox) statues.

Kitsune at the entrance of the thousand gates

A little digression

The Kitsune statues guarding the entrance of a Inari Shrine are always two, a male and a female. These statues always hold a symbolic item in their mouths or beneath a front paw, and are highly individual in nature: it is said that no two are quite the same in all Japan.

Down the Torii’s path

I won’t lie here: getting to the top was hard. We walked, we panted, we sweated, we rested. Again, and again, and again. The entire path is no more than 4.5km long, but with thousands and thousands of steps, and with each step different in size to the previous, it was a nightmare.

The only thing that kept us walking was the mistic beauty of the gates towering the path.

This is where the torii are cultivated

Once in a while we would spot a small shrine on the side of the path, all of them adorned with small torii. I like to think they are there just to give an excuse to the exhausted visitor to take a break from the main path.

Halfway to the top there is a resting area with some benches giving the breathless peregrine the chance to rest while watching the city of Kyoto. From this point, the main path forks in two, going around the mountain and forming a loop reaching the highest walkable point.

In total it took 45 minutes to track the view point, and another 30 minutes to walk the loop, at a leisurely pace.

Despite not offering much in scenic view, the loop is highly recommended to those who wants to enjoy the Inary walk in the quiteness of the forest.

We got back to the view point just in time for the sunset. As it was really crowded at that time, we looked for a better place to enjoy the moment.

Sunset over Kyoto

Just behind a small shrine, which looked more like a maze of rocks and pillars, we found a short path that took us to a elevated point from which the entire city was visible.

The view from there was something amazing. Hit by the rays of the setting sun, the rooves glittered like gold, while the sky changed colours from blue, to gold, to red.

Torii walk by night

Before the sun set completely we left as we felt some drops of rain. On the way down the path was almost completely empty and we took our chance to take pictures of the torii in the dusklight.

Shameless torii selfie

Unusual view of the torii

To finish our tiring day we decided to give a try to tripadvisor again, going to one of the best ramen in town. Apparently also Chinese people use tripadvisor a lot, so we had to queue for a while before getting in.

We didn’t get a word of what the menu offered, so we ordered according to the most appealing pictures. We ordered a ginormous ramen with pork slices and a medium one with bamboo sticks.

Special large menu for me, medium for Sara

Antonio mistakenly ordered almost one liter of Asahi, for just 600¥.

Well… It is not gonna drink itself

Drunkenly satisfied we walked the 30 minutes home. As soon as we touched the mattress we fell asleep.

Tomorrow Nara.

Keep following us for new articles.

Last day in Takayama

Leave a reply

The futon… A 4cm thick matress typically used in ryokan… We even used two because we were concerned by it’s comfortableness.

Double futon bed

Well, I can’t recall a better sleep in the last few years. Amazing.

I just realised we didn’t post any picture of our room yesterday. Here they are in two configuration.

The room as we arrived

The room this morning.

Breakfast time! As we arrived yesterday we had to decide which kind of breakfast we wanted: Sara went for the traditional Japanese while I opted for the more cautious international.

Traditional and “International” breakfast

The international was quite simple: egg, ham, coffee, a toast and a kiwi. Light but enough (i still have two Dorayaki in the room eheh).

The traditional was more complex: miso soup, a lot of veggies, tofu, tea and a miso paste that was cooking on a magnolia leaf to then put it in the rice.

Cooking the Miso

Both breakfasts​ were a pleasant way to start our day. With our full bellies we went straight to the city to seize the day. 

All the guides and articles found on the web recommended to go to Kamisannomachi, the main street of the old town, early in the morning to enjoy the view without the crowd of tourists.

The water canal on the side of the street

It was indeed better than yesterday, and if you mentally remove all the wires hanging over your head and the asphalt below your feet you can somehow imagine what life was like during the Edo period.

The street is full of little shops that sell handmade goods, so we got our first (small) souvenirs.

Our first small souvenirs

When backpacking everything you buy weights on your shoulders, so we sadly couldn’t buy any of the local sake bottles. 
Instead we decided to try everything the food shops had to offer, starting from a local miso soup (very popular in the area). 

The difference between the people in Takayama and the ones we’ve met in Tokyo is astonishing. Not only they are more relaxed (reasonable since we are in a smaller city) they also are extremely kind and gentle. When taking pictures of the craft in the shop they would thank us repeatedly and try to explain in any way (mostly using signs) the items they were selling. They usually also ask where you come from and then they thank you for coming this far to visit their city.

As we went towards the next place in the list, a morning market, the tourists wave started to rise. We noticed that there were only few occidental tourists like us, while the majority were from China.

Tourists at the market

We finally reached the market, where we tried more foods like takoyaki (balls of batter with cooked octopus), taiyaki (fish shaped batter filled with different flavours of cream ranging from chocolate to beans) and then a skewer of small balls of rice pudding covered by soy sauce and grilled. Screw the diet!

The last takoyaki

Apart from the food, we had the opportunity to experience a breathtaking view of all the cherry trees blossoming by the river.

Sakura tree

Sakura tree on the main bridge

More Sakura trees on the canal

We also noticed that strollers are not very popular in Japan, except if used to carry dogs.

We also wondered why toy puddles are so popular here, since most of the dogs we have seen since we are here are of such breed.
After the market, we went to check a giant structure we could see from the river. The structure ended up being a very huge torii of the close Sakurayama Hashimangu shrine.

We took some pictures and went to check this shrine.

It is the first of a long list of shrine this city has to offer trough the Higashiyama walking course, and Sara was really enthusiastic about visiting them all and get some stamps from the monks!
Unfortunately all, believe me ALL, the shrines were closed. Well we could have expected it, it’s Sunday, and we are entering the golden week. That meant no stamps for us!
Even being closed to the public, most of the shrines had their outer gates open, allowing us to enjoy their gardens.

Tree with a demon trapped inside. Do not break the charm!

Toriis to a shrine

Inari guardian with a message

A 400 year old oak

We were almost at the end of the walkway when we heard thunders… coming from our stomachs. Apparently all the small snacks we had didn’t fill us up, so we decided to go back to the city to grab some meat filled buns.
We wandered around the streets randomly, and this was for sure one of the best parts of the day.
You get to see the everyday life of the people living there, whether they are energetically washing rusted nails in a bucket or working on their farms. Whatever they are doing, they always stop to greet you with a polite bow.
Randomly following the sakuras on our path, we ended up in another beautiful (closed for our joy) temple. The Hida Gokoku Jinja shrine was surrounded by sakura trees and we took plenty of pictures of it. 

Geisha posing in front of the torii

Panorama of the blossoming sakuras

Did I already mention our innerselves were rumbling? We went back to the crowded part of the city and bought the first edible thing we could find to calm down our hunger. We ate two buns, one with our loved red beans and black sesame and the other with pork and onion.

The bun seller with her buns

Buns!

Maybe it was because we were really hungry, but the buns were outstanding. We really like red azuki beans, but they often disguise ad chocolate because of their shape and color! We were more than once fooled by the brownish color of a filling to then find out it was not chocolate when biting. 

Lies…

Enough with our broken chocolate dreams, back to the day. We grabbed some other snack at a 7 eleven close by, and then went for our final goal, the Takayama Jinya.

Selfie in front of the entrance

“A room” as explained by the description…

Sara was disappointed by the fact that there weren’t enough English descriptions in the museum. Moreover  we had to leave our shoes at the entrance as the entire building floor consisted of tatami, and our feet were getting really cold.
We than decided to hurry up and finish the visit in order to put our shoes back on.
Since we were not freezing enough, we went for a green ice cream that we saw everywhere in the town. The ice cream was a green tea flavoured one, and it actually tasted great! 

Happiness is an icecream

At one hour to our train departure, we went back to the ryokan to take our backpacks and went to the station were we waited. This time the trip includes a relaxing stop in Nagoya of 7 minutes. The right time to jump off a train, run like crazy in the underground maze that is every Japanese station, trying to decode the timetable displaying the trains in Japanese and guess the platform of our next train.
Against every odd, we made it on time.
Before closing this post I would like to make one out of context consideration: after almost one week spent in Japan we realised that there are no trash cans around the streets. If you buy something to eat, you may end up walking with garbage in your hand for a couple of hours before being able to actually trash it somewhere.

This is due a terroristic attack happened in Tokyo in the 90s, where the terrorists hid a sarin gas bomb in a trash bin killing  12 people and injuring thousands (Source).

Time to sleep now.
See you tomorrow for another post.

Shirakawa-go & Takayama 

3 Replies

Hello again! We had such a great sleep tonight and we were totally ready to start our day with a superb breakfast.

The hotel provided not only a nurse style nightwear for free (will add a picture soon), but also a typical Asian breakfast. We were fooled by the idea that the hotel had a continental breakfast, so we were ready for croissants and fruit. Instead, we arrived in the hall and, after being welcomed repeatedly by the staff by the now familiar “irasshaimase”, they served us Miso soup and rice with fish. The complete menu consisted of rice with seaweed and close-to-embryo formed fished, tofu with more seaweed, pickled veggies and miso soup with seaweed.

Our superb breakfast…

We are in Japan, we have to accept the fact that sweets aren’t part of the typical breakfast! Antonio was so so so happy about the meal that he held a grudge for a mere hour, until we reached the station and got some pastry covered in gold leaves, a speciality of Kanazawa, and a coffee from Starbucks.

Golden pastry

We had to spend one and a half hour in the station, so we reserved the seats for the tomorrow shinkansen and arranged some lunch (we bought some rich bento for around 1500¥ ~ 13€ for both).

Sushi fo lunch!

The bus for Shirakawa-go was not-surprisingly in time, and by the time of expected departure all the passengers were on board and their luggage meticulously ordered in the bus trunk. As the clock of the bus switched from 11:09 to 11:10, the driver turned on the engine and we departed. Perfection. (we had to film that, darn).
The bus trip lasted around 1 hour and entertained us (especially Antonio) with plenty of nice landscapes, ranging from rice fields to snowy mountains. We also have to get used to the driving direction here in Japan, the whole trip felt so strange!

Entertained Antonio

Shirakawa-go is located in a valley, surrounded by Alps like mountains covered in snow. The feeling, coming from cities with spring-ish temperatures, was to step in a 18th century’s village in the end of Autumn.

The houses here are shaped as praying hands with a thick roof made of straw. The shape is due the necessity of standing the huge amount of snow that falls in this region in winter.

Typical house​ in Shirakawa-go

As we got off the bus we decided to climb our way to the viewpoint, a 15 minutes walk uphill with the backpacks on our shoulders.

Shirakawa-go view from above

The struggle was totally worth! The view from up the hill was breathing for both the village below and the surrounding mountains covered in snow.

Hungry, we decided it was time to consume our well deserved meal. We choose a panoramic place were other people were taking pictures, to sit down and eat, but a guy, probably working in the local cafeteria, came to us telling that we could not eat there. 

Other people around us were chewing what looked like food, but he didn’t hear any reason. Jerk. We had to move and eat somewhere else. Luckily, that didn’t mine our appetite.

Bon apetit

With our bellies full, we descended to the village. Going downhill was much easier and took almost half the time.

On the side of all the roads in the village, runs a canal collecting the water coming down from the mountains. What surprised us was the fact that despite the water was cold, the canals were packed with fishes.

The canals are also used to provide water for the paddies (rice fields) that are everywhere in the village.

View of a house with a paddy on the side

Walking among the houses we found some of the scarecrows used in the paddies. Sara decided to see if she could start a carrier as one of them. I think she’s not bad at all…

Can you find Sara?

Many of the houses in Shirakawa-go can be visited paying a small admission fee of 300yen (~3 euro). We decided to visit one which was set as a museum.

Harvesting rice 1 0 1

Inside we followed a path explaining the rice harvesting procedure and the process of making Shirakawa-go building’s straw roof. There was also a room for the tea ceremony and a connection corridor with the close by temple.

Tea room

The last thing we wanted to visit before leaving for Takayama was a temple, but it was closed. 

External torii of the temple

As soon as we jumped on the bus, Antonio fell asleep again, together with most of the passenger. Thanks for the company…

We arrived in Takayama that the sun was still up, so we run to our sleeping place to leave the backpacks and went visiting the old town.

The old town extends between the Miyagawa river and a smaller one that merged with it. Along the river there are marvellous Sakuras still in blossom. We took the chance to take more pictures. 

Sakura tree on the river

Another sakura tree

In the district of Kamininomachi, we visited the main street packed with tourists walking in and out the numerous old shops. Also here, on the side of the road was running a water canal with water so clean you could drink it.

Old town district

Tired of all the mess, we aimed for the northern part of the city, where all the temples and shrines are located.

The entrance to the temple district

We liked this area more than the old town: torii, gardens, temples and graves (yes, there are also cemeteries), were all well kept.

How do you even grow something like this?

Except for another guy walking his dog, we were the only ones walking there. So quiet…

Temple with garden

Sunset on Tokayama

We ventured in a cemetery in a forest and found a dog/frog/something statue, watching over the graves.

A guardian statue

Tired and hungry we decided to walk to a restaurant suggested by a girl we met at the local tourist information center.

On the way we saw more Sakura trees in blossom. Such an amazing view…

Sakura tree in blossom

Finally we reached our restaurant: Kyoya. Here we had a taste of the superb Hida beef, and other delicatessen.

Dinner for 2…

The table had a grill in the middle. The waitress brought the meat raw and we had to cook it by ourself. 

Cooking Hida beef

3000kcal later, we were able to leave the restaurant and walk home. But we didn’t go too far that we walked into another beautiful Sakura. We just couldn’t pass by without taking a picture.

Sakura by night

Our place was a Ryokan, sporting a private onsen. We then decided to take advantage of this and have our hot spring experience. Unfortunately no photos are allowed inside, but trust me when say I wish I could do this everyday!

We were also given a yukata to wear during the night and for tomorrow breakfast.

Wearing a yukata

Time to sleep now. Tomorrow’s breakfast is at 7 o clock.

Good night everyone.

See you at the next post!

Kanazawa: the Golden Marsh

1 Reply

We finally left Tokyo.

It actually took a while… Even riding the Shinkansen, which cruise speed tops 300km/h, after 20 minutes from the window sit we could still see Tokyo buildings.

After a while they made space to a different landscape.

Despite going so fast, you can barely feel it. The ride is smooth and quite. The seats are wide and comfortable, and you have a lot of room for your legs.

Leg room on the shinkansen

From the window, despite the crazy speed, we admired many different landscapes, from the farms around Tokyo, passing through forests, to the snowy peaks of the mountains surrounding Nagano. The trip took 2 and a half hours with 3 stops: Nagano, Toyama, and finally Kanazawa.

Kanazawa train station is quite big, despite the city is a small one. 

Arc in front of the station

After identifying the tourist center we took a city map and booked the bus ticket for Shirakawa-Go, tomorrow’s destination. Then we walked to our hotel, the Toyoko-Inn, checked in, left our backpacks, and went visiting the city.

Omi-cho Market

Hungry we aimed directly for Omi-cho Market, a smaller version of Tokyo fish market, and grabbed some crokketto for lunch.
Kanazawa is well known in Japan for the gardens tradition, for the ninja district, and for having the only active Geisha district in Japan, together with Kyoto.

The latest was the first thing we went visiting. On the way to it we had to cross a river. We took the chance to wander on its banks and on the close Kazua-Machi district.

Kazua-Machi district

The Higashi Chaiya-gai is a beautifully preserved historical area with many two stores wooden buildings, with narrow streets cutting the area horizontally and vertically.

Most of the buildings, once tea houses where wealthy customers would be entertained by geisha, have today been converted into restaurant or souvenir shops. Only two tea houses are still open to the public during the day.
At the north end of the district, is situated the temple district. We didn’t venture further than the first one, as there are more than 50 temples in this area, and we only had one day to spend in Kanazawa and many things to see.
Next we went to the Kanazawa Castle. First we walked aimlessly around taking pictures, but then we decided to go looking for a tour guide.

We were lucky twice as the tour was free, as the guide was a volunteer, and because the guide was the sweetest woman you can imagine. She walked us around explaining the history and curious facts about the castle, making jokes about the fact that while European castle used to throw boiling oil to invaders, Japanese castle had to rely on rocks only as it was quite common for a castle to catch fire, given the building material.

Kanazawa castle main gate

The Kanazawa castle was so lucky in the past that had one of its sentinel tower annihilated by a lightning strike, and cought fire burning to the ground, but hey! It was never assaulted by an army!
Of the original castle only a gate and a storage building remain. All the rest, by the way, has been reconstructed exactly as it was with the same technique: no nails were used. The entire structure is a huge amazing jigsaw puzzle.

The guide took us also to the Kenroku-en gardens, which are the most beautiful gardens we have ever seen.

Sakura in Kenroku-en gardens

Statues and sakuras, ponds and hills, also a small island shaped like a turtle, which together with the crane is the symbol for luck. 

Statue in Kenroku-en garden

The level of cleanliness and cure was astonishing. Workers were even picking out brown moss from the ground by hand. Crazy yet amazing.

Lone tree

We said goodbye to our guide and hurried to Samurai Nomura house, in the samurai district. 

A road in the Samurai district

Despite the entrance fee was higher than usual (500 yen or 4,5€), we didn’t regret paying for it late.

Nomura house internal garden

Internal gardens, live tea ceremony, letters and sword belonging to the most famous samurai in the history of Japan.

Nomura house

Walking away from the samurai district we ended up in Katamachi, which is the shopping district. It seemed quite unusual after seeing all the previous historical places. We even found a hedgehog cafe!
Next we went looking to what was called the Ninja Temple. No ninja there… Only a big closed wooden house. Meh…

Evening came and found us hungry. We stopped in ８番らーめん 犀川大橋店 for a cup of ramen and walked back to the hotel, passing along the river.

Ramen noodles

We even found a small temple on the way.

After a hot shower we ate some poop-shaped sweet. Very tasty 💩

Tomorrow morning bus to the samurai village! Stay tuned for the next post…

Back in Tokyo

Leave a reply

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!

[wpvideo xylFhlyu]

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!

2 Replies

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

Leave a reply

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.

[wpvideo jzirENG0]

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

First day in Tokyo

3 Replies

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!

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

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.