Tokyo Part Four - Kamakura and Asakusa

One morning, S had a bright idea that we would go to Kamakura and see the giant Buddah. So go to Kamakura we did. The train ride was about an hour long and when we got there, we looked for the ever faithful maps that we had become so accustomed to seeing around and we headed in the direction of the Giant Buddah.

About 2 hours later and still heading in the same direction, I wondered out loud if we were going in the right direction. I had a bit of a feeling we might have missed a turn somewhere. The traffic was thick and all heading the same way we were and so we just kept walking, thinking and hoping they were heading to the same place we were. After all, it was a few days past New Years and around New Years Japanese visit temples, shrines (and giant buddahs) to say their prayers and wish good fortune for the year.

 

Five hours and 7 km later (we stopped to take pictures, eat etc along the way) - at 3pm in the afternoon; the sun was starting to set. There was no sight of a buddah anywhere and my feet were starting to hurt. We noticed that there had been a train track that pretty much followed the path we walked so we walked up to that and had a look at the map on offer. We had walked 5 km too far. So, we hopped on the train; tired and exhausted and went the 5km back the way we came to see the Giant Buddah. 

By that time I was almost ready just to head back to our hotel, but I am so glad we jumped on that train to the Giant Buddah. It was absolutely breathtaking and I highly recommend seeing it. I would also recommend just taking the train and not trying to navigate your way by foot, but to each their own.

We really enjoyed our time seeing Daibatsu and joined the rest of those who were there in lighting incense and saying prayers for the year ahead. We also joined the many people drinking canned hot coffee from a vending machine in a meagre attempt at trying to warm ourselves. Kamakura doesn’t have many (any?) Japanese restaurants as it seems to be mainly a touristy area. We ended up stopping by a little Italian place and we had wood fired pizza for lunch. It was only 600Yen ($6.50) per pizza though, so we didn’t pay tourist prices!

The next day it was my turn to choose a destination. I was given instructions to choose something that was easy to get to and easy to get around. I had been to Asakusa when I went to Japan with school in 2004 and although I didn’t remember much of the place, I did remember it was beautiful.

We missed out on going to Kyoto due to bad planning and Asakusa was in a very small way similar to what I remember Kyoto being like. I knew S would enjoy it. When we got to Asakusa, we hopped off the train and headed towards Sensoji Temple. We got sidetracked at Nakamise; a popular shopping street that sells traditional souvenirs. The souvenirs are definitely overpriced, though there is a lot of interesting stuff and we spent a couple of hours looking through the different shops and choosing gifts.

Sensoji was quite busy but we were able to walk around the whole temple and get some good photos. We also saw a monkey show which was really impressive. That monkey was clever!

For lunch, we headed to the giant sperm Asahi beer museum. It was underwhelming to say the least. The restaurant itself was quite dark and dingy and the menu didn’t have too much on it. It was a definite tourist trap and we got sucked in!

After Asakusa, we decided to walk to the Tokyo Sky Tower that opened last year. I had no plans to go right up in it, since I’d already seen the view of Tokyo from quite high, but the shops in Sky Tree town were interesting to look around. We ended up here for dinner as well as we found a little Okonomiyaki restaurant and since that’s my favourite food, there was no way I could resist! I’d recommend Sky Tree Town as there is a lot to look at and a lot to do. Especially if you tack it on to a day at Asakusa. 

Tokyo Part Three - Harajuku and Shibuya

If you want to see people dressed up and totally in their comfort zone, then Harajuku is the place to visit. A real mix bag. On Sundays, the different styles truly come out on show and the outfits you see can be quite incredible....and different.

Harajuku is also home to a huge park called Yoyogi Park. Popular for teenage dancers and bird enthusiasts alike.

 The teenagers practice their dance routines, often in costume whilst there are people around picnicking, people taking pictures of birds and groups performing with instruments. There is also a dog park that I think is so well thought out as it has different sections based on the size of your dog. Teddy would be in doggy heaven if that was our local park (apart from the fact that all the dogs are all dressed up and Ted would have none of that).

The streets that line Harakjuku are made up of various different stores to shop at. Down Takeshita Dori there are cute little themed shops where you can buy costumes and there are also the usual department stores that you will see all over Tokyo. Luckily for me, we found a Marc Jacobs store and I found a perfect handbag that S ended up buying for me. I am very lucky!

Shibuya is similar to Shinjuku, but you will find cute little streets that have little boutique style shops in the. We also found a few designer op-shops that were interesting to have a look through. We didn't spend too much time here as we had been there last year as well and we had seen most of it. It is home to the busiest crossing in the world though which is evident at around lunch time. It reminded me of Newtown/Paddington in Sydney. 

There are plenty of good places to eat lunch and from memory, we found a little Yakiniku place (stirfried beef) and all up for both of us we paid 1200 Yen (about $12.5o) for our meal. I'm not sure if it would be somewhere you could spend a whole day, unless you were set on doing a lot of shopping there. We were only there for about 3 hours but we had been there the year before, so we didn't have as much to see this time. There are quite a few good coffee places around too, if you look hard enough. A nice change, since most places sell the dripolator coffee.

 We found good coffee in Shibuya

Tokyo - A Video

S made another video of our time in Tokyo. A bit longer than the Hakuba one; it encompasses the whole week we spent in Tokyo and all the areas we visited.

Tokyo: Big City from Sven on Vimeo.

Music: 'Lippy Kids' by Elbow

Tokyo Part 2 - Ueno

After a week in Hakuba, we headed back to Tokyo to spend another week there. This time, we stayed in Shinjuku at Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku.

Shinjuku has a huge train station that most train lines run through, so for us it was the most convenient place to stay. The hotel was only a 5 minute walk (as opposed to a 20 minute walk from last year) which made it easy to get to and from the station with our luggage.

We went across to Takashimaya Times Square to our favourite little Mexican restaurant that we discovered the trip before and had a really good meal. If you are anywhere near there and feel like Mexican, the restaurant is called El Torito. The prices are standard (cheaper than Aus) and the food is really good.

On to Ueno...We spent two days in Ueno because we didn't get everything done that we wanted to on the first day we went there. If you visit Japan and want recommendations on where to go, I would absolutely recommend Ueno.

In Ueno there is a huge park that is surrounded by museums, cafes, restaurants, shopping centres and a zoo. The Ueno zoo only costs 600 Yen per adult (about $6.50). I originally thought the zoo would be quite small but was pleasantly surprised at just how huge it was. There were so many animals I'd never seen before, so it was a really good day for me.

A big lonely bison

Flamingos!

The duck house

Ueno also has a few different museums and an art gallery that each cost around 500 yen ($5) to get in to. This time, we managed to see the National History Museum and the National Museum of Western Art. The museum had some truly amazing displays and we could have spent the better part of a day discovering new rooms to look in. Unfortunately for us though, we got there an hour and a half before close, so we were in and out.

 

When we visited the art gallery, the Rodin exhibition was on display. The sculptures were amazing and it was such an experience to be able to see such fine works of art. I also got to see a Picasso painting in real life for the first time. Breathtaking! 

The first two days in Japan

I blogged about Hakuba here. This post is the two nights before Hakuba and was written just after we got back, but I have been waiting on pictures from S's laptop...and I am lazy.

The first two nights we spent in Tokyo. We stayed at the Metropolitan Marunouchi which was amazing! S upgraded our room to a corner suite and since we were on the 47th floor, we had sweeping views of Tokyo. At night, with all the lights lit up, Tokyo is just incredible!

The hotel is located in Central Tokyo and is close to Ginza (the upmarket shopping district of Tokyo), so we walked along the streets checking out the designer stores and just took it all in. We also saw the 'Tokyo Illuminati' which is the annual display of Christmas Lights. We noticed that on Boxing Day morning, all Christmas decorations had been taken down (apart from the lights which are there until end of Jan) and replaced with 'Happy New Year' decorations. The Japanese are certainly efficient.

During these two days, we also went to Tsukiji fish markets and Odaiba. Tsukiji fish markets are recommended by many people but I think it is something you can miss if strapped for time..It's just..lots of fish. Also, lots of people! There are a lot of stores and each sell different things. After you have seen so many though, they all look the same.

Odaiba is located near Tokyo Bay. We went there just to see what it was like and also because S read there was a Suntory factory (which ended up being offices, not a museum or anything). We were amused to find a 'Statue of Liberty' near the shore, too. We didn't spend too much time here, as it was nearing the evening and we had walked about 7km from our hotel to get there so were exhausted.

Odaiba seems to be a bit of a tourist trap with a shopping arcade, restaurants etc by the water. One thing that we found really strange was a pet shop that had a room people could pay to go in to, to play with the cats. I suppose with such small living areas a lot of people can't keep pets. Still though...only in Japan!

Next up - Tokyo Part 2.

Iphone pics

 Teddy, my sweet boy

 Teddy is such a mans dog. He loves S so much!

 Japanese Yen

 A cool bar in Tokyo

 Art in said cool bar

 Aww, Ted.

 Live Jazz at the Park Hyatt, Tokyo

 Dressed up for drinks

 Playing with headbands

 Christmas gift. Pink, grey, brown and purple. Not sure about the brown.



Back to reality

S and I got back from Japan on the 7th and have been really busy since. Japan was amazing! We spent the first week in Hakuba where we skied. The snow was amazing! So so powdery and so awesome to ski on. I was really apprehensive before we went about the skiing, as I've never really enjoyed it in Australia, but Hakuba certainly changed my mind!

The second week was spent in Tokyo which was also fantastic. I didn't realise the shopping there was so good and came home with a new Winter wardrobe.

 The ski mountains

 It snowed a lot overnight...

 Blizzarding on the slopes

 Showing how deep the snow is. This is outside our accommodation.

 The trees looked like glass trees

 The view from our room

 Snow monkeys!

 The only family of monkeys in the world that use hot springs

 We bought fireworks..

 Harajuku

 The view from The Peak Lounge - Park Hyatt, Tokyo

 Amazing view!

 Mount Takao Shrine

 Tokyo City is so clean and modern

The view from the New York Bar, 52nd Floor of the Park Hyatt, Tokyo.