Blogs from Tochigi, Japan, Asia - page 3

Utsunomiya, vibrant, sensual and quite simply just rammed full of gyōza! Embedded between a number of swanky café’s and bars dotted around town you’ll find a number of gyōza joints offering up various adaptation’s of the Chinese dumpling. Legend has it that a number of Japanese soldiers during WWII obtained Chinese dumpling recipes whilst occupying Manchuria, upon returning home to Utsunomiya they set about putting these recipes into commercial effect, one thing lead to another and then all of a sudden there were all sorts of recipes flying about the city, a gyōza boom was born, of which now has essentially typecast Utsunomiya as the best place in Japan for gyōza! People flee from all corners of Japan to smash these regional delicacies into their faces. Oh, and the things they do to a gyōza in ... read more

I loved the Sleeping cat.... read more

Up at 6AM to ensure the departure and make the first leg of our way to Nikko from Sado Island. Our travel was like this: Bus,Bus,Bus,Jetfoil,Taxi,Bullet Train,Bullet Train, Train, Taxi, all before 5PM. Ready to go and we waited for the bus at 7:40 AM Sunday. 7:42 AM No bus. Panic... because we have 20 minutes to catch the next bus. We rush back to the Ryokan and sure enough the lady there knew exactly what to do. We hopped into her minivan and off we went to the next bus. We made it with 3 minutes to spare. This bus arrived. Whew. The rest of the travel was punctual by all modes of transportation and we arrived at our last leg by 4PM and were about to get into the Taxi when a bus turned ... read more

We arrived into Nikko from Tokyo on a Shinkansen (bullet train) and immediately noted the change in temperature to the city. We took a short walk up the hill to the other station where the info office and bus ticket office is (a place to get maps and an idea of what to do). We dropped our bags off at the nikko park lodge (number 2) which we first of all couldn't find but it was actually directly opposite the main station entrance. This is directly related to the other Nikko Park Lodge hostel in the mountains where the owner will do a free shuttle pick up and drop off to in morning and evening. They were very accommodating here and gave us maps and directions to the shrine area of Nikko. Instead of paying for ... read more

***** Exciting news! In anticipation of my imminent move to Hong Kong, I am also moving blogs to a different provider, so from now on you can find me at my new blog! To follow me there, there is a button to press on the right hand side where you can add your email address to get updates just like on here. To celebrate the move, along with all the tales from Central America, there are also TWO bonus Japanese blogs for you, from Hanami (the cherry blossom viewing) and my trip to Hiroshima, and lots of photos to accompany the following blog. I look forward to seeing you on the other side! ***** chrisneedos.wordpress.com The family have come to Tokyo! This week has been a busy blur of travelling and sightseeing around Japan, so lots ... read more