Japan

Ohayoo Tokyo!

Muffin and I arrived in Tokyo and checked into Tokyo Ryokan near Ueno. It was a modern ryokan in a nicely architectured building which had a spa upstairs. After dropping our bags off we headed off for a walk in the park in Ueno, and to purchase tickets for a concert in Osaka.

Hakone

We set off to Hakone by shinkansen, and stayed in Fuji-Hakone Guest House .

There were few other holidaymakers around as it was the middle of the week. We had ramen in a restaurant and they made us take this cheesy photo ...

 

After lunch we had some snacks while we waited for our pirate ship to take us across Togendai (Lake Ashi)

 

Later that day we got back to Hakone and went into a very traditional isakaya. Seems like only locals go there because there were lots of old men sitting at the counter drinking sake ...

 

Muffin discovered his new favorite dish -- roasted garlic served with miso.

Later that night, back in the ryokan, we had a go in the hot springs ... which was TOO HOT to enter! Tho, my skin was really smooth from my attempts at splashing some of the hot spring water on myself ... I did smell a little sulfuric afterwards ...

Around Hakone, onwards to Osaka

After breakfast, we haded to Hakone Yumoto and decided to look around there while we waited for our shinkansen to Osaka.

 

We found many stores selling pickles and dried fish ...

 

We bought some snacks for the trip and pottered around near the river and saw little fishes ...

 

My hayfever was acting up so we bought some antihistamines (I don't know how we managed to describe that to the pharmacists!) and decided to hang out indoors with a tea-time snack ..

 

Once safely aboard the train, the real snacking could begin!

 

After dropping off our stuff, we headed to Tempozan Harbour Village, a shopping complex near Bayside Jenny (the venue for the Autechre concert) and went for a ride on the ferris wheel.

 

If that wasn't bad enough for my fear of heights, we decided to try get an even better view of Osaka from Osaka Phoenix Tower (and tried not to think of earthquakes).

We had a scrumptious dinner before heading off to the first concert which I could actually see the stage while standing out the back!

Osaka Aquarium

We headed to the Osaka Aquarium ...

 

After gazing at all the seafood, we had lunch at an Omuraisu restaurant (where all the dishes consisted of fried rice wrapped in egg, with various toppings). This dish was invented in Osaka.

 

After lunch we caught the shinkansen to Kyoto. We checked into our tiny room and headed out for dinner.

Kyoto's Temples and Gardens

We hired a couple of bikes from our hostel and peddled off to check out the gardens in the Imperial Palace, and visited many temples amd shrines (of which I have forgotten the names of).

 

Later that evening we headed to town for tea ...

And then some delicious ramen!

Nara, Todaiji

We were on the shinkansen again, for a day trip to Nara. There were lots of deers and they were hassling picnickers in the park.

 

After snacking in the park, we headed to the temple to check out the huge buddha statue.

 

According to the caption on Binzuru (above) if you rub the image of the statue and then rub the corresponding part on your own body your ailments there will disappear.

 

We had some snacks back later back at Kyoto ...

 

We were still hungry so we bought some sashimi and sushi to eat back at the inn.

Around Kyoto

We rented the bikes again and set off to look around locally, and checked out Nijo Castle (which had squeaky "nightingale floors")

 

Hungry, we decided to check out the restaurants upstairs of the Kyoto Station Building (called "The CUBE").

 

We ate in a Kaiseki Ryori (vegetarian) restaurant which had really delicious vegetarian food, and many varieties of tofu.

 

We headed to Nishiki markets, browsed around some shops, and then watched a Bruce Willis movie (I think it was Hostage).

Later that night we headed back to Kyoto station and had dinner at a kaiten sushi (sushi train) restaurant, and then had some desserts.

Himeji Castle

We bought some food from a department store in Kyoto Building and set off to Himeji Castle ...

 

We had a free guide all to ourselves and she gave us a very informative tour of the castle.

 

Back in the Kyoto Station building again, the EDGE has never failed to provide us with a new restaurant to try out ... this time we tried a ramen shop ...

Arashima: bamboo forests and gardens

We borrowed the bikes for a long ride to Arashima ...

Heading back to Tokyo, around Kabukichō

Here's the view outside our hostel window ... there seems to be some sort of archaeological excavation going on ...

 

We slept on these tatami mats during our stay here.

 

We bought more snacks for the train journey back ...

 

As I napped Muffin took random photos from the train ...

 

Back in Tokyo, we checked into the same ryokan we stayed in earlier ... and wandered around Kabukichō.

 

For dinner we went to a tonkatsu restaurant ... and had the best tonkatsu I've ever had!

Institute for Nature Study, Meguro (Tokyo)

 

We headed to Meguro to go to the Institute for Nature Study. It was so strange to find such a huge nature park with lots of bugs, birds, crickets so close to the city.

Beetle shop

After looking at bugs all day yesterday, Muffin had been fantasizing about having a bug collection so we looked for a beetle shop.

 

Can't remember what else we did today ... but I think we tried looking for the Parasite Museum but got lost and so decided to eat food instead ...

Meguro Parasite Museum

Our 2nd attempt at finding the Parasite Museum (it was closed by the time we found it the day before).

 

After a whole day of looking a parasites, we were famished. So we found a traditional isakaya (how traditional? there weren't any english menus!)

Somehow we managed to order a whole array of food (the waitress had a English-Japanese pocket calculator/translator) ...

Tsujiki Fish Market (attempt #1), Ghibli Museum

We woke up bright and early to go to the Fish Markets .. but found out that it was closed when we got there! (d'oh)

Still, that didn't stop us from eating ... we found a fishcake shop near it ...

 

I had reserved tickets to the Ghibli Museum and we bought a catbus for Derek (wish I kept it!) and a Totoro for myself.

 

For lunch we were hankering for tonkatsu again ... this time you had to grind your own sesame.

 

Somehow it was time to eat again ... and we had some tea and people-watched.

 

Back in Tokyo we ate (again) ... at a ramen restaurant.

Tsujiki Fish Market, Tokyo Museum and hometime!

We woke up early again for our second attempt at the fish markets ...

 

It was VERY busy and I can see how slow-moving tourists could be very annoying ... they'd almost certainly be bowled over by those little wagons carting fresh seafood...

 

We dropped our bags into the lockers near the station, while we killed time in the Museum while waiting for the train back to the airport.

 

Halfway thru browsing at the museum we got hungry so had lunch in the museum restaurant ...

 

And then we continued looking at the displays ...

 

In all, we really loved Japan and would come back again. I wouldn't mind moving here either ...