Heading to Japan was a breath of fresh air as we said goodbye to the hot and humid climate that is S/E Asia and made our way to a much colder environment in Japan. We flew into Tokyo and stepped off the plane immediately noticing the chill in the air and robotic like nature in which everything is done. Travellators everywhere and sensors for almost everything. We sped through the airport with relative ease, mostly due to the airport's efficiency. We had no idea what was the best way to get to our hotel and ended up getting a taxi. We had gotten quite used to the cheap nature of S/E Asia and now had to fork out roughly 100 dollars for the cab ride. Seeing Tokyo in the car on the way there was awesome, it was lit up like a christmas tree and concrete high-rises and apartment blocks as far as the eye could see filled the landscape. The roads and trains somehow manage to mesh into it keeping the streets below relatively scarce of traffic.
Once we arrived at our shoebox hotel the "Capsule Inn" (yes, capsules) we checked in and got invited out by the concierge and owner for new years celebrations. We all walked to the local temple to pay heed to the new year (something almost all Jap locals do at this time) and the hotel owner shouted everyone an Asahi Beer. The queue to the temple was probably 400 metres so we decided that we would walk through the market and just get a glimpse of what was going on; this gave us time to mingle and take photos. Not long after we headed back to the hotel to sleep - think giant laundromat but instead of dryers, they're "beds". With the roof but an inch from your face, it made for an interesting experience.
First day in Tokyo was pretty much getting a grasp on how to get around and sorting out our transport for the next two weeks. We went to a 10 storey mall across from our hotel next to kinshichou station to have lunch and stuffed our face with some Indian food that included unlimited rice and naan bread (fantastic). Soon after we set off for tokyo station to pickup our 2 week rail passes and got hooked up by the lady that helped us there. Managed to book all our Shinkansen tickets at the same time and picked up a rail map in English because the Lonely planet one was a pile of crap. Mission accomplished, time to look around… We walked around Ginza (Tokyo's high roller district) and pretty much looked at all the closed shops and snapped some photos walking the streets.
The buildings in this area are massive and very corporate so we set off for a fish market, which unbeknownst to us was an early morning only affair. We did however manage to find a sweet place for dins and from there went back to the hotel.
Day 2
We checked out of the capsule inn and took a train to our next accommodation and got lost after walking around for about an hour in the new hotel's neighbourhood (Ueno). We ended up getting shown the way by a nice enough local who walked us there but were a little annoyed by the amount of time we had lost doing it. To make matters worse, the instructions given to us weren't clear nor led you to the direction of the hotel, so I doubt we were the first to experience problems. We dumped our bags and scooted off to grab our Shinkansen to Mount Fuji.
We all love the Shinkansen. Smooth as silk and shoots along at a couple of hundred k's an hour, such an awesome way to get around! It only took about 2 hours to get to Mount Fuji and when we got there we were enjoying the views immensely. The Mountain overpowers the expanse and dominates the entire town. Fuji-san was completely visible when we got there but by the afternoon, and after spending a few hours exploring the town, had become covered in a cloudy haze due to the windy conditions on the mountain.
We ventured to Kawaguchi lake, caught a gondola summit lift to a viewing platform on a hill adjacent to the mountain and saw the best views of Fuji, complete with bell and shinto shrine. Fuji-san truly is a magnificent sight to behold.
As we were now pressed for time, we booked it back to the station and got on the last train at 4:30pm with a few minutes to spare. Later on after getting back to tokyo we went to Shinjuku district. This district is pretty much the party area of Tokyo where you see the more wacky side of the city. We saw numerous strip parlours and strange karaoke/ gaming venues and had multiple black dudes approach us offering a "good time".
The further you go down the back alleys, the crazier it gets, we spotted a bunch of yakuza looking dudes in leather jackets heading into one of the Bollywood joints in one of the alleyways.
Day 3
With a well deserved sleep in, after quite the adventure from the day before, we went to the Tokyo museum which was conveniently located on the other side of the station near our hotel. The museum itself is located on a nice park that has numerous shrines and cafes which surround a large square (complete with fountain).
One thing you notice with Japan is that even though they build mega cities complete with the latest and greatest technology, they still have a deep respect for their history and heritage sites. Pretty much all are preserved and well looked after. You could quite happily spend over an hour walking around the museum grounds without going in. We however, were keen to see some original Samurai armour and legit Katanas.
The museum has some really interesting pieces: Original Buddhist scrolls from a thousand years ago were commonplace and some of the later ones were about 20 ft long and drawn as stories "read" longitudinally with incredible detail.
Some told stories of battle and others a diary offering snapshots into somebody's life. No doubt valuable from a cultural perspective. We loved the Samurai gear and the swords to go along with them. Some of the armour is quite intimidating but very practical. Mobility and weight advantages superior to that of traditional platemail/chain-mail. Leaving the museum we were satisfied but also keen to move on.
Shibuya was next on the agenda for tonight as we wanted to visit its famous intersection. A ridiculous amount people cross it per hour, roughly a hundred thousand and it is one of the busiest in Japan. Shibuya is good for your run of the mill generic shops like apple, GAP etc. It's really nice but we didn't buy anything, the highlight was the long queue of people camping out for a product release or sale of some sort.
We walked for a good twenty minutes along the sidewalk - the queue still continued, people busting out thermoses with their heads buried in their electronic toys - must have been a kilometre long.
Day 4
Our trip to Nikko marks a highlight to our Japan trip, and one that was arranged at the last minute. The place is one of the more rewarding temple sites and the buildings, along with where they are situated, makes for a great place to visit.
Nikko was bloody freezing by the way, and the first legitimate place we encountered snow - Scott finally got to see it in the flesh for the first time. We spent the whole day here and enjoyed every minute of it.
Later in the evening we visited Harijuku (fashion district) and Akihabara (electronics district). Hurijuku was visited first and we had a look around - Scott bought gloves and we bought some dinner up the road from the station. You could go nuts here if you had plenty of spending money but we were quite happy to window shop. Shops started to close/ were closed after we had dinner so we left. A couple of hours was spent at Akihabara - geekville.
We went to the SEGA building and watched dudes play Gundam wing against each other in the arcade (32 people) and visited a few electronics stores. One of the them was 8 floors and crammed with merchandise (one floor just for iPhones/ smartphones). Crazy place!
KYOTO
Day 5
Sayonara Tokyo!
Once again we jumped on a Shinkansen, this time en route to Kyoto. Trip was about 2 hours from Tokyo and travelled at faster speeds than what we had experienced previously.
After arriving at Kyoto station (massive train station!) we needed to eat and found a bakery that we ended up making a few visits to while we stayed in Kyoto. Most of the goodies were $1.50 so naturally we stuffed our faces. We didn't do much else apart from check in to our hostel and wait for push bikes to become available so we could go to the 100 yen store, Japan's equivalent of the $2 shop. Ended up with a sweet little iPod speaker so we could crank the tunes during our downtime.
Day 6
Because we woke up late we only had time to hit up Nijo-jo Castle so we rode our bikes and checked it out in the afternoon. This castle is pretty epic, complete with a moat and curved outer walls guarding the few surrounding temples inside.
This place was a gathering place for shoguns but is mainly known for the nightingale floors that make up the hallway passages inside. To anyone wondering: the floorboard joins have interspersed nails which create a faint creak (akin to a nightingale) when walked upon that alerts guards to any intruders entering the building. The sound is quite distinct and didn't end up being the only time we encountered buildings with this type of construction. The castle also contains some wonderful gardens and a viewing platform that gives you an opportunity to look out across the whole property.
Day 7
We needed to start hitting the temples because there were so many of them to see. We got up early and jumped on the bikes first thing in the morning to head to the eastern side of Kyoto. It was a Monday so none of the places we visited were very busy; in fact the first place visited (Shoren-in temple) we had completely to ourselves.
Shoren-in is one of the only sites you can visit where you can go inside the rooms of the temples, this was awesome because it was the first time we had the opportunity. We felt privileged being able to do so and savoured the experience of tatami mats, sliding paper walls and quiet contemplation of the incredible Zen garden. Also up the road at Chion-in temple we witnessed a 70 tonne bell and explored the hills above the cemetery, climbing very high.
It would have been great to see Kyoto from up here but the dense foliage was not so kind. Realising time was ticking by, we scooted off to the Zen temple Nanzen-ji and had to leave a little earlier than expected in order to see the Ginkaku-ji (silver pavilion).
The 3 of us rushed on our bikes through the philosopher's path and got there just in time to appreciate the silver pavilion before the gates shut. This place was amazing, with fantastic sand landscaping and picturesque views.
Day 8
We had a great plan to get up at 8 so we could bike ride to the other side of Kyoto to see the Bamboo Grove/ Tenryugi temple. Naturally we snoozed to 11. It didn't end up mattering that much though as we got there with plenty of time to spare. The Tenryugi place was okay but nothing spectacular (particularly being Autumn), it was a place that gave us access to the Grove so we went with it.
We rounded out the back half of the trip with the bamboo grove and bit of a walk out the back of the area to a cliff and riverbed. We enjoyed the sights! After exiting at the end of the day we had to come out by passing through the grove and we found a way you can enter without having to pay. It was little misleading as the temple offered access - kinda why we went in but didn't realise you could bypass it by going round the back.
Once dinner was done with we jumped back on the bikes with haste to the famous Tozando shop. If you want custom made samurai armour or Katanas these are the guys you come and see. Nick ordered a customised Iaito sword so we were at the shop for some time.
You can literally choose every aspect of your sword; from sheath patterns, silk/ leather handles to the Tsuba (guard) and Hamon (edge pattern) - even the craftsman who does it. It was a pretty cool way to end the night.
Day 9
The next day we were once again back on the bikes and off for the golden pavilion (Kinkaku-ji). The Golden Pavilion is pure eye candy and definitely something special. It's covered in 18 carat gold leaf and has it's own lightning rod around the back to keep it in top condition.
We did our thing and took photos here and admired the area but it definitely held a real tourist vibe, which up until now, we hadn't really noticed in Kyoto. People were constantly walking in front of us taking photos and the viewing area was a bit cramped if you wanted the best angles - we managed though.
2 more places were on the cards, 1 of which (Daitokuji), didn't really allow you access to see much at all. The place was free to wander around but if you wanted to go into a area someone was there to take your money. Daitokuji was really nice but like I say, you don't get to see much without forking out for it. We wanted to move on and were starting to get hungry to so we left after about 3/4 of an hour. No longer worried about our daily budget, the last shrine we headed to (Kamigamo Jinja Shrine) was free.
This is one of the oldest Shinto shrines and is distinctive because of its 2 large mounds of sculpted sand at the entrance. We liked it here, but arrived on the cusp of gaining access to the inside of the building, and thus dipped out. We wandered the outskirts and went looking for the monkeys that inhabit the area - whilst we heard them, we didn't manage to see them.
Day 10
Today was our last in Kyoto, and luckily we had done all of the things we had planned prior so we only had 2 final things on our Kyoto itinerary. We set off for the endless shrine today (the Shinto fox/harvest shrine), which is quite unique - it is basically a myriad of distinctive orange Tori with Kanji scripture that are continuously laid upon the pathways at the endless shrine site.
We actually weren't able to complete the walk here as it was massive but definitely got a good amount of satisfaction from it. We had to get to Nara to visit the Daibutsu so left for the train and made haste to Nara. We got to Nara and grabbed a cab up to the Daibutsu, which was only a few clicks away - we would have walked, but were pressed for time. Once we arrived we could make out in the distance what we had come all this way for, tourists littered the paths and were feeding the deer that happily lingered around the buildings.
We entered the Daibutsu and after paying our fee were immediately blown away at the sheer size of the building. It is currently the largest wooden building in the world and the one that stands is actually only two thirds the size of the original (the original was burnt down in the 1700s).
This was without a doubt the most awe inspiring building we saw while in Japan. Inside contains a gigantic Buddha made of brass and gold, it is immense - we found it hard to take photos because we weren't able to capture the true size. The surrounding walkways have two large carved wooden sculptures about 5m tall.
We were really lucky with our schedule. The guards were locking up the buildings almost right behind us as we went through so we were appreciative of our time.
HIROSHIMA
Day 11
Adios Kyoto - we packed up and left our awesome hostel (the Hannari Inn - highly recommended) and grabbed our Shinkansen first thing in the morning; we had a big day of travelling ahead so we had to book it to Okayama. We actually weren't in Okayama long, only stopping to visit one the top 3 gardens in Japan: Korakuen. This place is really beautiful and is a short walk from the main station, we power walked the whole garden taking shots in our stride.
Once again we were lucky that there were only a handful of other people here so we got an uninterrupted look around. Due to it being winter in Japan the Sakura were not flowering, but come spring, these gardens would look amazing - definitely something to consider in the future. With our run of the garden complete we hailed a cab back to the station and grabbed our next Shinkansen to Hiroshima.
Hiroshima is actually a pretty slow paced town considering it was one of the biggest and busiest cities prior to the bombings in WW2. We walked our way around here and first stopped off for lunch before making our way to the old Hiroshima peace memorial dome.
This building was only a mere 150m from where the bomb was dropped and was one of the only buildings left standing after the blast. The building itself was fenced off and inside there were steel I-beams reinforcing the walls - it's a wonder that it was standing at all and we were all quite taken back by the sobering aura the place gave off.
Old men sat by the river selling their stories - obviously children at the time. The memorial site that has been set up in remembrance is really nicely done and well maintained. Moving on we walked to the museum and got well educated on the lead-up to bombing. The museum had artefacts from the rubble and even copies of Einstein's letter to the administration about the discovery of nuclear fission.
The museum got progressively sadder the more we went through as the full horrors of nuclear war were revealed and to be honest near the end became hard to stomach. People were crying at some of the pictures and exhibits of left over belongings that had been found and we felt it would be a good time to leave. We headed back to the station and made our way to the train - 3rd time for the day and made haste to Kagoshima. We arrived, checked into the hostel and got some well deserved sleep.
KAGOSHIMA
Day 12
We woke and walked to the pier to catch our boat to Yakushima Island. It's a four hour boat ride to one the of the more isolated islands off the southern Honshu coast and one of the most rewarding.
Approaching there is a real misty, dark grey haze that covers the entire island - and the mountains disappear into them; It looked like something out of a Jurassic park movie. The 3 of us walked to the hostel and were greeted by our friendly host while checking in. We dumped our stuff and just started walking - with no plans other than to explore.
YAKUSHIMA
We walked the main road for a half hour stopping off for the best teriyaki burger we've ever had before setting off again for another hour in search of an Onsen. The sun fell and in the pitch black we ventured off the road into the bush where natural hot spring baths were located. We relaxed here for a good 45mins enjoying the therapeutic qualities of thermal springs before having to walk all the way back for the hostel. We spoke to the concierge about what the best trail was to visit as we had to cut our days here at short notice due to bad weather conditions (meaning the ferry couldn't sail - we didn't want to miss our flight from Tokyo!). Telling him that at lunchtime the following day we had to leave, we needed the best advice on what to do with the little time we had. We settled on the Shiratani Unsuikyo nature trail and booked a 5am cab ride to the entrance before getting some shuteye.
Day 13
Woke to alarms at 4:30 and our taxi was waiting outside to take us to the Shiratani Unsuikyo trails up in the mountains. The road there was windy and long and not to mention had no lights showing us the way. Our cab driver however did know and navigated the hills with relative ease. He must have thought we were crazy because nobody lives in the mountains nor comes up here when it's dark; it was pitch black after he drove off and you couldn't see a damn thing. If you put your hand up in front of your face you wouldn't see it. We were kinda laughing about it but excited at the same time. We grabbed Nick's torch, turned our iTorch app on and headed into the wilderness.
The path was easy to navigate and we knew in order to see the lookout rock (Taiko-iwa) we had to make serious inroads in the dark. We trekked for over an hour in the pitch black looking out for pink bands wrapped around trees and nailed into rocks to show us the way, all the while hearing flowing streams and gushing water to the sides of the paths (without being able to see much at all). We made it to a rest point that had an old hut with a couple of long drops inside about halfway to our destination.
We had a quick break and ate some brekky here - then it started to really rain, incessantly for the rest of the day. We had to keep moving and left the hut with a slight lift in light as the sun had just started to dawn. With the light we started to see what this place has to offer, dark green moss-covered forestry with massive cedar trees a couple of centuries old.
A true gem and totally natural, you feel like you are visiting an undiscovered, unrestrained veritable wilderness. Getting to Taiko-iwa (the viewing rock) was no different. Due to the haze you couldn't see shit at all. The sky, the view below the rock and pretty much everywhere you look was the same grey.
It was a strange but cool view (see pic). We had to start heading back as we had to think about the ferry to get us back to the mainland so we went back the way we came in the dark and took photos of all the awesome things we missed on the way through earlier.
We walked amongst a family of deer and saw the first other people on the trail about halfway back to the entrance. We got a smile and wave from them but a WTF look at the same time.
Getting back to the park entrance soaked and in need of sustenance, we waited for the bus back and did our best to get rid of the wet and keep warm until we got back to the hostel to get our shit together for the boat to Kagoshima. Our boat back to Kagoshima was a blast: 4m swells, Scott threw up and a bunch of kids beside us would't stop crying. Yay! The day wasn't over yet though; we once again boarded a Shinkansen - this time to Osaka to get to our next hotel.
OSAKA/TOKYO
Day 14
Because we slept in after check out time, exhausted from our hectic few days, we had to pay for an extra night at the hotel. We also woke to some random Taiwanese girl sleeping the in the spare bed in our 4 bunk room. She must have come in while we were asleep - the joys of cheap accommodation.
Anyways, we left and made our journey back to Tokyo. Heading straight for the airport and deciding to spend the night there whilst waiting for our early morning flight out of the land of the rising sun and onto new adventures in Mongolia.
Vending machines seen: 96 (per street)
Help received by strangers: 45 times
Kms traveled on Shinkansen: 3,550km
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