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Published: August 16th 2007
Our first Japanese meal
Lunch in Asakusa, Tokyo - the area where we were stayingHi guys,
Due to the travel blog site crashing a couple of weeks ago, we've had to re-enter this blog. This time we were hoping to put some pics for you to view too but the connect at this hotel (we're in Shanghai at the moment) is so impossibly slow! We will add the pics as soon as we can :-) Another entry will also be put on in a moment.
Cheers,
Ness and Anthony
Hi All!
Well we've finally started our Asian adventure and 6 days in we're going good!
Our flight from Sydney to Tokyo with Qantas went well, enjoyed the movies but not the sitting in one spot for 10 hours! On the way into Narita Aiport we flew over the coast of Japan and acres of bright green paddy fields - made for a lovely entrance. Once through customs we successfully navigated our way to where we were staying in Asakusa (via a local airport train then on the Tokyo metro). The train system in Tokyo is pretty easy to use once you suss it out though we did find it a tad daunting at first after a long flight! Our hotel
Our fortunes from the Senso-ji Temple
On our first visit to Senso-ji Temple, Asakusa - all over Japan are these boxes that you shake until a stick falls out then you open the drawer of the corresponding fortune The Hotel Sunroute Asakusa was nice, with English speaking staff and a decent though pretty small room and a funny cubicle bathroom. The toilet was like Captain Kirk's seat from Star Trek - had a button for everything! The area of Asakusa was a great pick to stay in - not the bright lights of Shinjuku or Shibuya but one of the older, historic areas of Tokyo with the wonderful Senso-ji temple and lots of little streets around the temple filled with shops and restaurants. Really cool. And as the metro station was virtually opposite our hotel it was very convenient!
With really only 3 days in Tokyo we didn't get close to seeing all that we wanted and the hot and humid weather didn't help. It was 36 degrees on Saturday (we think) and the humidity level must have been up there - not the weather really for wandering around comfortably for hours! On our first day we just took it easy and look around the Asakusa area and jumped on the metro to Ginza for a look around. Ginza has a lot of upper class shops and has heaps of shopping malls, interesting for a quick look
Anthony and guide in Ueno Park, Tokyo under the cherry trees
This place gets absolutely packed during the cherry blossum season, it would be a stunning sight though as there are hundreds of cherry trees in the park but not really that different. We were looking forward to visiting the Sony shop there which is supposed to have super up-to-date products but wasn't quite as exciting as we had hoped, nothing we hadn't seen before. One thing we noticed about Tokyo straight away was how wide the main streets are! Normally at least 4 lanes if not 6, so even with all the tall buildings it feels quite open. In saying that there are lots of small alleyways that run off these large roads which are full of ieteresting things, be it restaurants, shops or even baseball/tennis grounds! On the most part, we didn't find Tokyo that crowded though there were always people around no matter where you went.
The next day we went on a free guided tour around Ueno Park, in the neighbouring area of Ueno which we had found out about the day before at Asakusa Tourist Information. The park is the largest public park in Tokyo and is of great historical signifigance with temples, museums, and galleries littering the area. The park was the sight of the successful rebellion by the imperialists against the Shogan in the mid-1800s which paved the way for
modern day Japan. The park attracts around 2 million people each year to see the 200 cherry blossum trees planted in the park flower during the very short (a week or so) season. We also visited a museum in which traditional houses from the Shitamachi area of Tokyo during the Edo period had been moved into, an interesting insight into that era and the conditions that workers lived in. We had great plans of visiting the Odaiba waterfront that night but after a day in the sun were just too tired! Our final day in Tokyo saw us head to the Imperial Palace gardens in the morning (the gardens are adajacent to the Palace where the royal family still reside and to which you can't enter). They were nice open gardens with little pathways leading here and there surrounded by massive garrison walls and moats. Our plan after the park was to visit Harajuku and the Meiji-jingu shrine but we got off the metro and headed the wrong way, taking us after a slightly long and confusing and definitely hot walk to Shibuya! By this stage we were just over it and decided that Harajuku would have to wait for
another trip! Shibuya was packed with shops and lots of people (check out the photo below of the pedestrian crossing!) From Shibuya we jumped on the Ginza line (metro) back to Asakusa and noticed with every stop more and more young people crowding on to the train in traditional dress. By Ueno (where we had to get off to swap our JR Rail exchange vouchers for actual Rail Passes in preparation for our departure the next day) the train was packed (for a Sunday afternoon) Getting back on the train to go two stops to our hotel was a mission! The platform was flooded with people, with everyone pushing to get on the train, and with guards shouting and pushing people into the train! So much so that they had to poke peoples bags and limbs in so that the train doors could close! Shoved in like sardines we made it on the train (it was quite fun really, everyone was laughing) we were obviously wondering what was going on! Once back at our hotel we discovered that the once a year Sumida River Fireworks Competition was on (we had read about it but didn't know exactly when it was
going to be on). This compeition has been held every year since the 1700s and attracts anywhere up to 900,000 people to the Asakusa area. Our plans to visit Shinjuku that night went out the window as we decided that we definitely had to suss out the competition. The streets of Asakusa were absoultely flooded with people, food stalls were set up around the Senso temple complex and the fireworks were amazing! Best of all though was seeing so many people, both men and wornen, in traditional dress, we had previously seen a few people round town in kimono which was very cool but nothing like the amount we saw that night. It was quite funny actually as for some of the younger crowd it obviously wasn't their normal choice of dress as they would have this crazy hair style which didn't quite match what they were wearing!
All in all we really enjoyed Tokyo though definitely didn't have enough time to see everything. The one thing Anthony was disappointed about was the lack of flash sports cars! The cars driven here are micro and quite boxy as to fit into the tiny garages they have but we have
seen a couple of covertables that Anthony was impressed with!
On Sunday morning we left Tokyo for Takayama. We had a slight hiccup with our train ticket (didn't realise that we had to go to the main Tokyo station to get on the Shinkasen train and not from the Ueno Station from where we got the tickets - oops!) which put us back half an hour but after a few hours, including an hour or so stop over in Nagoya we got to Takayama. Takayama is in the Japanese Alps area so was thankfully a lot cooler than Tokyo! It is famed for the centre of it's old town, which comprises of a few streets of traditional buildings, it's sake breweries and a festival that happens twice a year where huge floats parade the streets. A nice place but quite touristy. The train ride up from Nagoya was amazing though, following a beautiful, crystal clear river which definitely made the time fly by! We stayed at the Rickshaw Inn, in a traditional Japanese style room which was fun, in a good location with nice, English speaking staff. The only down side was the singing competition happening in the park
across the road which went on from the afternoon till close to midnight and which we could hear very well in our room - oh well, it didn't stop us sleeping and it was definitely something different to listen too! Takayama is in the Hida area which produces some high quality beef so of course we had to try some. We ended up having dinner with a nice Swiss couple, who after we both sat waiting at this restaurant for quite awhile, invited us to join them once a table came free. We had a fun meal cooking the meat outselves while drinking some nice Japananese beer! The following morning we got up early and wandered around the two morning markets that Takayama runs everyday, not overly exciting but nice for the fact that they are not only for tourists but sell fruit and veges etc for the locals.
We then left Takayama for Kanazawa on the coast of the Sea of Japan. We arrived 4 hours later after catching a train, a bus, a train and another train, an interesting way to travel 110 kms! It was actually pretty cool as we travelled through some beautiful countryside and
it gave us the opportunity to "mix with the locals" a little bit. We stayed at the Castle Inn Kanazawa which was another nice, clean but simple hotel close to the station. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant near the hotel and ended up getting drinks bought for us by the drunken (on sake) businessman sitting down the table from us! Very entertaining and Anthony loved the big hug he got from him when we said goodnight!
We got up nice and early this morning and visited the Kenrokuen Garden which is rated as one of the top 3 gardens in Japan. Lovely place for a wander in the early morning. We then walked a few kms to the Myoryuji Temple, otherwise known as the Ninja Temple, which is filled with secret passage ways, trap doors, hidden staircases etc.The temple was originally located in the grounds of Kanazawa Castle but was moved once in 1643, then again to it's current location. It was built as a lookout point from which to observe enemies and is 4 stories high but has 7 layers, 29 staircases and 23 rooms. The temple was not consturcted by the ninja (is referred to
as the ninja temple because of all the tricks it contains) but was devised to trick spies and enemies and alllow for sudden escapes. Was great fun and though the tour was only in Japanese we were given folders which gave decent English descriptions of what we were seeing. We then jumped on the Kanazawa Loop Bus (Kanazawa was really gearsed for tourists, with great tourist buses and maps etc) and visited the Geisha district followed by a nice walk down the river on our way back to the hotel to pick up our bags. After lunch we jumped on the train for Kyoto and have just arrived at our hotel, The Palace Side Hotel. It's opposite the Kyoto Imperial Park, in what seems like quite a nice area a couple of subway stops up from the main Kyoto station and for 7770 yen a night (about AU$77) it's a bargain - and we're in a "superior" room as the standard rooms were booked out! We're here for 4 nights before we head to Hiroshima so will try and squeeze as much in as possible!
All in all, we're really enjoying Japan. We've found it pretty easy to get
around and that a lot of people speak English (enough to answer basic questions at least!). We've eaten some interesting food, be it Japanese or their take on Western food. Also the vending machines on every corner certainly come in handy! We were talking today about how amazing it is that both beer and cigarettes are sold in these machines and that the kids don't take advantage of the easy access. Wouldn't be like that in Aussie or NZ!! We're also not finding it to be that expensive, obviously there are pricey hotels and restaurants but we're finding that things are generally about the same price as Australia if not a bit cheaper! Great for us!
Sorry that this blog is so long! We'll try and make the next ones a bit shorter and sweet!
x Vanessa & Anthony
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Rohan
non-member comment
Sumo do Sumo don't
Sounds like ur already having a ball. Was great to see you put the blog up again, I saw the e-mail in the morn and went to read it in the evenin and it had crashed. I Lost 8 blogs but 6 have been recovered. Can't wait to see the photos. So Anthony, you have a bit of a fetish for Japanese Buisinessmen hey. Saki Saki..... haha.. Rohan