Tokyo - final days

Yesterday was our last full day here and after our big shopping day in the Ginza area we decided on a much easier and quieter day. After a lazy morning in the hotel room, blogging and relaxing, we headed to Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens. They are in a more suburban area of Tokyo (by their standards not ours)but are right next to Tokyo Dome and also there was an amusement park there too. We had some lunch while watching a band play in a communal eating area. We tried Octopus Balls which we had seen and been told were very popular but hadn`t tried previously. Mark in particular liked them. They are a type of savoury pancake batter with a piece of octopus inside as well as spring onions and finely chopped capsicum. Then cooked into a ball shape about the size of an egg in these special trays.

one of the walkkways in the garden next to one of the lakes that had very large Koi/ cat fish in them. The stones both small and large are set in concrete so are stable to walk on.

Engetsu-kyo (Full Moon Bridge) the reflection of the bridge in the pond produces a full circle with the appearance of the full moon. Apparently it was designed by a Confucian scholar. While many bridges and small shrine type buildings in the park were damaged by bombing during the war this bridge is the original.

One of the many paths through the `stroll garden` with the red Tsutenkyo bridge in the background.

Some parts of the garden were apparently designed to reflect particular geographical areas of Japan. One area was the Kiso river. We were thrilled we could recognise it from our previous trip to Japan when we walked part of the Kiso valley along the river and mountains. They had done a great job.

Time for us to check out from the hotel now. We will store our luggage at reception and collect it around 3pm to head to the airport. That`s another holiday over folks! See you next time to share our future travels with us.

Thanks for your comments and support.

xD&M

Fun in Tokyo

Can you believe this carb fest??? Yes that is half a loaf of bread with cream, ice-cream & banana on it. There were about 4-6 flavours to choose from. Who eats this stuff??

Because having a top of the range BMW wasn`t enough this owner had the symbol on the bonnet done in diamante`s!!! Want one of these Stacy??

Another dinner of Korean BBQ, we like these as we know what we are getting. We also got lots of fresh veg with this one. Yum..

We went to the famous Tokyo fish market yesterday morning. We did not bother trying to get to the tuna auctions as they are at 5:30. We got there around 7:30 for a wander around and to get a feel for the place. Mark was loving it from a retail/wholesale point of view. It was amazingly chaotic with men pulling ancient trolleys with orders on the back to literally 1,000`s of little vehicles which the drivers stood on and were also able to carry about 10 cases on the back. All craziness... the poor workers are having to doge sticky-beaking tourists like us everywhere as well as locals buying their one fish in a bag of water.

From there we wandered to the Ginza area. This is retail heaven and we chose it as a shopping day. We are not normally intentional with our shopping when away. Just usually buying something if we see it during our travels. Around 2:00pm they close one of the roads to cars. They also put a few tables and chairs out for exhausted tourists and locals. Here I am in the middle of the street enjoying blessed relief to be off my feet.

The cross street became a free for-all when the crossing lights went green. Try and spot the aussie bloke loving the madness.

After another couple of hours wandering we were thrilled to stop for a coffee in one of the best seats around. This is the view from our table.

And here I am at the table. We really do love the vibrancy of a big city as much as amazing and relaxing rural scenery.

Early evening we stopped for a pampering of 30min foot and calf massage. Delicious for our tired feet. We finished off with dinner at a Teppenyaki bar. Mark has been keen to go to one for the whole trip and was not disappointed. He even had teppenyaki ice-cream for dessert, which was a bit like crepe suzette with fruit and ice-cream warmed and half melted on the grill. He said it was great!

Tokyo - interesting buildings

We love all the different architecture and use of small places here. Note the 2 very narrow buildings tucked between the others that aren`t much bigger.We estimate they were only around 4m wide.

This little tudor style building built in the early 1800`s next to the copper facade. We have noted alot of houses with alot of copper guttering and downpipes. Very trendy!

Gold Cartier building one one corner. (check out the wave style to the building behind it) FYI the other 3 corners were Louis Voitton, Bulgari & Gucci.

Jigsaw puzzle building

Loved the use of metal on the facade of these 2 buildings.



New building we were told is for a school of design in Tokyo. This is near our hotel.

Tokyo - hotel snippet

Breakfast at Villa Fontaine in Shinjuku was 2 x warmed rice balls with mushroom in one and seaweed in the other. Also a slice of omelette and pickled noodles in the container.

We have had a couple of nifty coffees in our hotel rooms. Check this one out. We had to tear the top of the coffee bag off, unfold the bits on the side, and hook them over the side of the cup. Its our on little drip coffee maker! Better than instant thats for sure!

Interesting wallpaper in the hallway. Its like being in some psychodelic dream.

Nikko

We came here not to do too much, but to have an easy couple of days, before we hit Tokyo for our last 3 nights before coming home.

Yesterday we strolled just 500m to the `abbys`. It was quite a deep bushy canyon and was very peaceful and relaxing. Amazing torrents of water rushing by.

At the end of the path we came across an old cemetry. All these were sitting at the base of the mountain facing the river.

Dinner at the Ryokan that night was Beef sukiyaki and trout accompanied with the usual soup, salad, rice, pickled veg. Very tasty with our sake and the company of an american couple at the table next to us.

This morning we decided on a stroll to check out a World Heritage Site and the Shinkyo bridge. All quite close to our Ryokan which has a beautiful clean fast flowing river at its back fence. Its very peaceful for sleeping. So much for an easy day, we ended up walking at least 10km, with stairs and hills involved!! My calves are getting so toned!

3 wise monkeys on one of the shrine buildings

The Tosho-gu Shrine. Hard to see here but its mostly white and gold with ornate colourful painting under the eaves.



Shinkyo, red lacquered bridge, was originally used exclusively by the Shogun and his imperial messengers.

Morning tea/cake set at a local cafe. Its rare to get english tea in a regional cafe here. Note the beautiful china set. We had seen these cakes in shops but they just looked like a pile of wholemeal noodles. It was the only choice and turned out to be hazlenut mix piped over a light cream and shortbread biscuit. (included this for Paul)

Lunch in Nikko. Soba noodle soup with veg and tempura bits on top.

The river at our back fence.

Yamagata - Yamadera

Yamadera has a heritage site of temples high on a hill. All info we read on this site showed how beautiful it was. This is a pic taken from the train station when we arrived showing only the top half of the hill. We thought the train would be dropping us near the top NOT at the bottom of the hill. Also NONE of the literature we saw mentioned the 1,001 steps to the top!!!!! The angle of the paths in between the stairs was also steep in places.

There were shrines all the way through the the cedar forest making it an interesting climb. We must fess up that we piked out about half way up deciding on preservation rather than accomplishment to the detriment of our knees.
There were very pretty `stroll` gardens.
Mark amongst the trees.
Spotting successful climbers at the top of the hill from Yamadera train station

Yamagata

Yamagata is about 3 hrs north of Tokyo on the Shinkansen. We came this far north to give ourselves every opportunity to see the beautiful autumn leaves. Alas we are a bit early to see the area in its prime but this photo taken out the bus window shows a little.

Our aim this day was to bus it to Mt Zao, to see the volcanic crater with the lake in it. Then we could hike to the next mountain (we were told 70 - 90 min) and from that point catch a chair lift down into the Zao Onsen (Spa) resort town. We were excited with the idea of this mountain hiking and thought if Emmeline could climb Machu Picchu we could walk at 1800m for 90 min. On the bus were at least 15 hikers with all their gear and poles ready to do some hiking themselves.

We planned that it could be cold so took all our warm clothes. The reality came as we stepped off the bus and were knocked aside by the howling wind. It was about 8C with a wind chill of around 0C. It was incomprehensibly cold. We dashed inside the tourist building to suss out the plan and then did the 5 min walk to the crater. Don`t be deceived by the beautiful blue sky in these pics. Mark literally was freezing. The cold wind in our ears was very painful. This is as much as mark would poke out for his photo.

I was a little braver but was soon holding my hair over my ears again. We went inside again (nearly being knocked over by the wind on the way) and checked the bus timetable to get down. NO-ONE was hiking anywhere. Not us, Not the experienced locals.

We had to wait about 1.5hrs but were happy to do so. This is a pic taken in the car park showing how quickly the weather was changing. The fact it didnt snow surprised me. It is a very popular ski resort area. The scenery though was beautiful. The mountains just went on and on. In the darkening light the seemed to be just shades of grey.
Luckily for us the bus also went through the Zao Onsen resort town. It was one of those weird little places which must be pumping during the peak ski season but otherwise seems somewhat deserted. Also the natural hot water was everywhere. Running down every street with steam rising everywhere. They said in winter it is very surreal.
We were advised by the tourist office which of the public Onsen were open. We headed for the Big Outdoor one. It was a bit of a hike up a steep hill but we figured since we had piked out on the mountian hike we could manage it.

It was amazing, though a little confronting, wandering around outside, naked, with a bunch of strangers. Males and females were segregated though. The water temp was about 45C and before long we were looking like lobsters to the entertainment of the locals. This is a photo of the brochure to give you an idea as NO phones or cameras were allowed to take photos there.

We happily went back to our hotel with plans for a quick dinner and an early night. This did not eventuate. We went for our free nightly cocktail at the hotel bar (very kind of them) and met a business man (who was half charged) but very excited to see us (Australians in the hotel)and bought us another drink while making the barman translate for us. The poor barman had very limited English, and was obviously a little in awe of this man, so was challenged. (It went something like .. the man speaking rapidly in Japanese then shouting "speak English . . dozo" while waving his arm from the barman to us.)

It ended up being nearly 2 hrs of this guy being so animated in his speech, punching Mark in a friendly way, no less than 20 times, him pushing Marks stomach in with both hands telling him he WOULD be able to ski if he was slimmer!! Then the hotel manager came in, with an entourage, and introduced himself, before they took seats away from us. When we said we were going to leave (before more drinks were ordered) he was a little unhappy as he wanted to bring the hotel owner over to join us. We could see a long night of drinking with no food coming up and made our excuses and were out of there. One thing we note here is that they eat early and then hit the bar afterwards.

Our quick and quiet dinner plans were further foiled when we found a little back street group of cafes. We spent another 2 hours laughing and being helped to order by two Uni students who came and squatted beside our table. 2 guys were inside and seeing this came out to join us at our table. They were a 22 yo med student and a 32yo break dancer and lots of fun. We had a really great night.

Shinkansen`s

Here are 2 photos to show the inside of the Shinkansen. This one was very new and as you can see it is like a spacious plane. Doors between the carriages are automatic so you dont have to fumble with them while pulling luggage around. Remember there are 16 carriages for most trains. We are travelling `pink` class (economy) and the green class is just a bit plusher looking.

FYI there are not TV`s in the head rests but big stickers showing the details of what is in the 2 carriages either side of us and the layout. That could be toilets, rubbish bins, change rooms, vending machines etc. There are also staff moving up and down the train constantly offering food and drinks you can purchase.

Mark loves the front of this one. This is our train from Yamagata.

Dining delights

What fun we are having dining here. This is from a wanna be French cafe. The chef came out and made pics on our coffees as we were westerners and he knew we would appreciate it. The other had a bear on it. While the pics were cute the coffee was average and barely warm. Mostly they are surprised when we order hot coffee as everyone here has cold/ iced.

In most restaurants there are either pictures to go by or they produce a menu with a little english on it from under the counter. This is how we ordered the best Udon noodles we have ever had. There were 2 men making them from scratch and we had a simple bowl with a light soy broth and dash of chilli on top. We then chose a couple of the optional tempura items that were so light and crispy. Delicious!!!

A couple of on dining experiences that come to mind are:
Kyoto - cooking on stones about the size of dinner plates which were set into a half circle timber bar that 4 couples sat at. We each had our own stone to cook on and the chef stood in the centre to provide assistance.

Kyoto- again in the middle of our 2 person table was a large terracotta casserole type dish with an inner dish as well. The waitress then came out with a pot of glowing red charcoal blocks. She lined the inner dish with these and then lay a metal mesh grill on top. We then cooked our marinated meats on this ourselves. The pork menu showed a pic of a pig with arrows to the options available. We could choose from ear, head, tongue, foot, large intestine, small intestine, heart, liver, rectum, and finally 2 choices we were prepared to eat and latched onto were the loin and back. It was a fun night with the staff ever keen to make sure we knew what was gong on and that were were happy. It was very smoky when cooking but overhead was a individual exhaust hood which when sitting was only about 6" above our heads.

Last night here in Tokyo we wandered a couple of blocks and being a Sunday night many places were closed. Those that were open didnt seem too inviting until we found a noisy one that was quite full. Always a good sign we entered and were offered a place at a bench table for 4 that already had 2 men at it.

This was the first restaurant we have been to that had NO pictures and NO english. The waitress had about 3 words of English and our Japanese is zilch!! We had such a fun night. The guys next to us were helpful in a really fun way then also a couple at the table across started giving helpful comment with another couple at the next tale laughing along with us all. We noted alot of people were eating Yakitori (skewered and bbq`d meat and veg) so we asked if they had chicken and pork. The waitress was asking something we didnt understand and the guy next to us started pulling his tongue saying you want tongue? I said NO and leant to the side and patted my upper thigh. They laughed uproariously and nodded yes, and told the waitress the japanese word for leg of pork.

Next the man across was offering his dinner for us to try for ordering. We chose the raw cabbage with chilli dip. Very nice and he assured us good for health as he rubbed his stomoach. We were asked where we were from and the usual reaction here is "Australia!! ah good" then they shout "aussie beef"!!! It must be an ad here. Then the guy across also added whilst swinging his arms around in the air, he said "Ian Thorpe" very excitedly.

Near the end of the night, Mark bravely requested a green drink like one of them was having. He was a little releived in the end to find it was just iced green tea. We ended up being given a gift of a half carton of green tea which was pulled from one of their bags. Again we were told, very good for us!! It was a great night after our frustrating few hours in queues.

Hakone

We left Kyoto early on the Shinkansen (bloody amazing trains) with the idea of visiting the area of Hakone. It is a popular tourist area here being only 1/2 hr out of Tokyo. It offers a circuit that include switch-back train up to around 400m, cable car up to around 900m, rope car (enclosed chair lift) up to around 1000m before it takes you down to the lake on the other side. Then you can take a cruise along the length of the lake and finally a bus back to where the switch-back train gets you back to the start. One of the reasons we chose this was it seemed a relaxing way of seeing amazing scenery including lots of views of Mt Fuji and the lake.

All around the area there are many things to see and do. More than we expected. The switch-back train had several stops and we were keen to get off at the Open Air Museum. We had read about it and were not disappointed. This museum also had lots of fun sculptures that were also kids playgrounds. This one was huge. If you look carefully you can see people inside this wooden structure. It also had an amazing woven suspended sling that the kids could climb into and run around on. It was probably 20m across at least.

There was a footbath with hot spring water feeding through it. It was a trough of about 30m long. This is us at one end of it and it was full of people enjoying the 65C water. There were also river rocks set into the bottom of the trough to stand on to massage our feet. We werent planning to use it but a Japanese man coaxed us into it extolling the therapeutic values of the water. We were happy he did. It eased our feet.

Some of the dozens of sculptures throughout the park. People in the bottom of the pic for scale. The surrounding mountains provided additional background scenery.

A very large mosaic approx 5mx10m with our favourite being the bronze person lying in the grass in the foreground.

A very large perspex or acrylic sculpture the kids were climbing through. You can see a couple in there. You had to be under 13 to enter so we stayed out! The timber boardwalk below it that you can see a little of was really well done. It followed the contour of the hill in a seamless flow.
A rainbow of squares running down the hill. The kids were loving running through it.
One of 2 egg seats. It was big enough that at least 20-30 people could sit around it.

Kathy - you did tell us it was very popular and to look out also for the swan paddle boats when we got to the lake. Alas the reality of our decision to visit this area on a Sunday in the middle of a long weekend soon hit us. After visitng the museum we joined the ever lenghthening queues to head for the cable. We waited 15 mins for the cable car and then when we got to the 900m stop we saw the queue for the rope car was over 100m long. I asked someone if it was moving fast and they said it would take only 10 mins. After 30 mins we thought we were just about there when we realised what we thought was the front of the queue was just a break in it and it continued for another 50m or so. At this point we looked at each other and jointly agreed to cut our losses and head down the hill rather than further up. We could see it being a rather LONG day if we didnt. Also there were so many people that once you got into a train or alike it was so crammed you couldn`t see much anyway.

We headed for our hotel in Tokyo and were happy to be here by 4pm. We stayed the night in a hotel we had been in before and it was a thrill to know where we were going and it felt like arriving home for a change. This was always our plan to stay one night for now and today we head up to Yamagata. It is a 3 hr journey so we are enjoying a laptop in our room again and relaxing morning.