Blogs from Kanagawa, Japan, Asia - page 3

One day, five trains and one hotel shuttle away from Tokyo, we arrive in the Hakone area, the home of Mt. Fuji and a mountain retreat for city folk. The trains take us south through the suburbs of Tokyo toward Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. The last transfer is to Japan’s oldest mountain railway which chugs its way up a sharp grade, and often along a steep dropoff. The 3-car train makes a few stops beyond those at platforms. The conductor can be seen pulling a few brake levers in his cab, then out he steps and disappears walking toward the back of the train, while another guy comes up from the rear to take his place - we’ve just changed directions for a switchback. A couple times the conductor is carrying some brass gear to manually switch ... read more

This blog covers a day trip I took from Tokyo to Kamakura, a UNESCO World Heritage Site south of Tokyo. The rest of my Tokyo shenanigans are covered in a separate entry. On September 29th, I woke up bright and early and made my way to Shinjuku station to catch a train to Kamakura. At Shinjuku station, I witnessed the Tokyo hive mind at work during the rush hour. Shinjuku is the world's busiest train station; hordes of people were coming and going, but they seemed to know exactly what to do to not inconvenience others. Even though the trains were crowded, boarding and disembarkation was orderly. Two different lines operated from the platform I departed from. There were colored lines on the platform floor representing the two routes; commuters knew where to wait in line ... read more

We're on holiday! We've left the urban jungle of Chiba and ventured again to the opposite side of the bay - a little further on from Yokohama, to Kamakura, a town we remember fondly from earlier visits. My current VNese teacher Mr Hue (said like /h/ + 'way') used to live in Chiba too, and urged us to visit the Izu Peninsula, and I really wanted to find somewhere there to visit for a night or two, but we also wanted to squeeze in a day in Kamakura, and we couldn't do both. So we're compromising by forgetting about the Izu Peninsula altogether, and we've come to spend two nights in Kamakura instead. The route was almost the same as how we got to Yokohama, under the bay again, but with another 20-30 minutes further train ... read more

A very long day! I was up not long after 5 am to get ready for our day trip to Hakone. Since my flight was leaving at around 2 am, I had decided just to take my stuff with me as we would be going to Hakone via Shinjuku and it would be too much effort to return to the Asakusa area to collect my bag. I'm glad I was only traveling with hand luggage. It was pretty cold as I walked down to Ueno station. The streets were really quiet. I met my friend at Ueno station and we took the train to Shinjuku. Shinjuku station was busy as always. We headed to the ticket office and bought the Hakone Freepass, this covered all our transport for the trip, so we didn't have to worry ... read more

Glyn asked this morning, "Is it just the one train today?" And I couldn't help but laugh. After the initial mountain bus down to Odawara Station, it's one train to Ofuna, then a shorter one to Kamakura, then a bus, then it gets interesting because we're staying in an Air B'n'B place, a private home and looking at Google Maps, the walk there is not straightforward. If I was to market this trip, I would called it 'A Taste of Japan': we are running around trying to fit in as much as possible into two weeks, trying every form of transport there is plus seeing parts most tourists usually avoid. That's why we didn't have much time in Hakone - that and getting lost, plus not understanding the place until we got here. You never get ... read more