Tokyo Baby.......

Day 6

OK - so who's bright idea was it to spend a day in Tokyo????  Oh yeah - that would be me!!!!

It seemed like a good idea at the time..... I had a plan - I knew where I wanted to be, what I wanted to see and what I wanted to do.... I just didn't plan on the sheer amount of other tourists who also wanted to do the exact same thing!!!

So first things first ..... This was our first Bullet train journey of this trip. We would get the horribly early Bullet from Kyoto into Tokyo station, then start playing with the subways (this is where Scott comes into his own).

Now, we have yet to see Mount Fuji on any of our other trips, so we were hoping third time was a charm..... And it was. About an hour and a bit outside of Kyoto, there was Fuji san in all his glory. How had we not seen him before?!?!?!  It seemed everyone got excited about him being on view and all you could hear were the clicks of cameras. Of course, we were on the right side of the train, so had no direct view..... But that's not going to stop me - I had the perfect view from the inbetween carriges bit (next to the loos!!).

Almost at Tokyo now, so finally planning to be made. We were going to make our way straight to the Sky Tree to book our tickets for later that day, then move on to the rest of the itinerary, go back to the Sky Tree, do the biz, then get the train home again....... so far so good.

Other places I NEEDED to visit were:
- Senso-Ji Temple and the rest of Asakusa
- Ueno and Ameyoko-cho (the park and the market)
- Shinjuku (just because)

See - not so bad .... We had done more on previous trips, so I was sure we would get it all done.

We arrived in Tokyo bang on time (no surprise there) and headed straight for the subway ..... Problem 1 - since the opening of the Sky Tree, they have changed the metro system to accommodate the new Sky Tree stop..... and Scott was a bit confused.  He got over it (without much grumbling ha!) and got me to the Sky Tree.

It's an impressive area.... With a huge shopping center underground (there is NOTHING you can't buy without a Sky Tree on it), restaurants, bars and an aquariam! So with an excited skip in my step, we climbed the four floors to the entrance (by escalator ... Fortunately) and were directed to the ticket desk by a lovely lady dressed like the Sky Tree ....... It's then the world stopped moving - literally!!! The queue for that days tickets was mahoosive ......... Some incredibly helpful chap but a sign on the doors telling us that the wait to BUY tickets for that day was 2 hours!! Bugger......

If we queued for the tickets, we would lose the day and wouldn't have time to do anything else and by the look on Scott's face, I could see there was no way this man was going to queue for 2 hours for a ride in a big elevator ....... Again - bugger!!

So, we sat in one of the very lovely open air cafe areas and contemplated our options .... Well I say contemplated - I think the decision had already been made when he saw the queue.  So all in all, this is the third time I have been to Tokyo and the third time I have 'seen' the Sky Tree but have yet to get into it ...... Ahhhh - one day!?!??!??

Oh well .... Moving on. Back on the subway and off to Asakusa and the Sensoji temple. I know we have been here before and I know we are going over old ground, but I love the place ..... Plus there are some great stalls in the way to the temple - shopping time!!!

This day is going to be lacking photos. I didn't take as many photos as I usually do ..... Basically I've got them all already, so this time I took the scenery in rather than stopping to fight with other tourists to get that perfect shot..... And there are lot of tourists here!!!

The place was heaving. Scott left me to go it alone along the stalls and I made good use and bought a 'few' things!!!  We paid our respects at the temple and I bought a fortune.  It was only a 'half fortune' but it said things at work were going to be good for me..... That's great, but where were the lottery numbers?!?!?!

As has happened a lot this week, time is getting away from us so time to move on. We are off to Ueno  to go to the park and hit the market. Now, can we all remember, that we came to Japan in November to see the autumn leaves.... Everything is supposed to be glorious red and gorgeous - but not for us!! It's VERY warm here and today in Tokyo it was 21 degrees, hence the leaves are still very green.  There is some red around but more in the rural areas in the west and south. Needless to say, Ueno park was not the glorious red I was hoping for, but still a very pretty park, and there is always something going on - lots of entertainers. 

After having a wander round, we made our way to the market (Ameyokocho). There is a lovely tea stall here which I wanted to visit and the welcome was the same as always..... Got loads of tea to sample  (I seemed to get doubles cos Scott wasn't playing), green tea sweets and some origami. I bought lots of tea to bring home ....... Well - after all that it felt rude not to!

I tried to persuade Scott that we needed to go to the zoo to see the Pandas, but he wasn't playing that game - especially as we queued up for hours last time and only saw them for 2 minutes - oh well - it was worth a shot!!

We are both starting to drop a bit and we are both hot and bothered, so we decided to catch the train back to Kyoto an  hour earlier than planned. It ended up being a long day but I still managed to see the things I wanted to see, even if they were all at ground level and not up a height!

We made it back to the apartment about 10pm, absolutely shattered ..... Well we had been up since 5:30am (thought this was a holiday?!?!). Don't know if I would plan that kind of day again, especially as we didn't get to do the one thing we planned on doing.........

Tomorrow is going to be a very easy day - a stroll round Kyoto. Going to do the Philosophers Path and visit lots of Temples and Shrines ........

So until next time ..... Oyasumi Nasai xxx

...... Sky High

Day 5

As promised - today was going to be quiet seeing as though we had a big day yesterday. So today is a quick trip to Osaka....... Osaka is about 20 minutes away on the train so it's a trip in a Local train for us.

First thing we noticed when we got to Osaka - was that the train station is call 'Osaka City Station' and it is!!! The place is massive.  There's a loads of shops underground (even spotted a Top Shop!!). You could easily spend hours just wandering round the station!!  At one side there are designer shops and then there are the more high street names, but all underground.

But I managed to drag Scott away from the shops (!) and we were on our way to the New Umeda City. Here we find the Umeda Sky Building which has the Floating Garden Observatory ...... About 173 meters up!!!

So ears prepared .... Up we went.  We took a glass lift up first, then an escalator ....... I have to say, if the escalators were not working, I was NOT climbing these stairs!!

The view from the top was lovely.  The day is a little cloudy, so we couldn't see too far, but we did get to see some great views.  We even stopped for a coffee so we could sit in the window and check out Osaka from above.

From here, you can go up one step further to the outside observatory floor - the floating garden. As we were going round, there as one area that was set aside.  Further investigation showed that there was a few railings with gold padlocks attached. Apparently on a night, the floor in this area sparkles with stars and lights and a loving couple can come and sit in this area on the special chairs and attached their padlock to the fence. By this time, Scott had done a dash and was round the other side.... Ahhhh - romance!!!!

So as I'm not going to get my padlock, it's back down to the ground and on to the Takimi-Koji market. This is a replica of a Japanese street form the Showa period and is mainly full of restaurants.  The smells were amazing.......

We are now going downtown to Namba  In particular I wanted to go to Dotonbori. This is the main hub and at night it is lit by hundreds of neon lights and mechanized signs, including the famous Glico Running Man sign and Kani Doraku crab sign.  Though the Glico Man wasn't lit up when we were there ..... Bah!!!

Puff a fish anyone???

Donki

Scott spotted the Don Quijote shop..... Dear god - this could take a while. If he can spend as long as he does in the 100 yen shop - this could be a potential nightmare!! For those who don't know Don Quijote (or Donki) is a chain of discount shops selling everything and I mean everything!! The Donki in Osaka has 6 floors and we visited every one!!! What can I say - the man likes a bargain!!! However, after all of that, he only bought some sweets. Though in his defence, some of the stuff he was looking at would have been difficult to take home.

Back out on the streets, it is starting to get quite dark, so the neon is starting to shine brightly.  The Glico Man is still not lit..... Bit I'm not bitter!! We started to go through the Shinsaibashi shopping mall, but it was waaaaay to expensive for our tastes.

It is now absolutely heaving with both tourists and locals (don't know how they put up with it all) and it's easy to see how this is the entertainment hub of Osaka and where everyone comes to blow off steam after a long day at work.

So now we are back at the apartment for an early night as tomorrow is a huge day .... It's Tokyo!!!! Early start so need an early night.

It's still very warm here at the moment, but forecasts are saying it is going to cool down quite a bit next week ... I do hope so.  There's also a chance we will come back just a little fitter than when we left.. I forgot how many steps you had to go up and down in these subways and train stations - my poor calf muscles ..  They have no idea what has hit them.  It's worse when you see the old Japanese ladies bounce up them steps and you 
have to stop for breath  half way up!!!

Anyway - until next time ..... Oyasumi Nasai xoxox

Gardens and Ninjas

Day 4

BIG day today..... we are going to Kanazawa.  The name "Kanazawa", means "marsh of gold", and is said to come from the legend of the peasant Imohori Togoro who was digging for potatoes when flakes of gold washed upmarsh.  So we are off to look for gold!!!

Kanazawa is also well known for its old traditional Geisha, Samurai and Ninja districts.  Sounds like just the place for us.......

Kanazawa is about 2 hours from Kyoto so we were up and out nice (!) and early..... getting to Kyoto train station for 8am.  Unfortunately, this meant we were also amongst the crush of poor people going to work. However, the train to Kanazawa was less crowded and we got a good seat so I could watch the Japanese landscape go by.

We are making our way through mountain areas with some fantastic scenery.  We stop at one station - Kagaonsen and spotted this.......

It's absolutely huge!! We tried to Google it, but all we found out was that it a Godess Kannon holding her child.  She is about 73 meters tall and was glistening in the early morning sunshine.  We only saw her for 2 minutes before the train moved off again.... but she was quite a surprise!!!

We are now at Kanazawa and bought our all day bus passes. First stop is Higashi Chaya-gai.  This is where the Geisha perform and there are a lot of Tea Houses.  The streets are narrow and the tea houses are very traditional - some of them are hundreds of years old. They are still used for entertaining and are quite exclusive but the Shima House is open to everyone so we could go and have a poke around there. Here we met a lovely Geisha lady who chatted to us for ages.  Apparently she spent a lot of time in the UK and studied English at Oxford University.  She was really nice and asked if we wanted to see the Geisha performance........ but it was on Wednesday - not today!!! 

Aaaargh!!!!!!

We wandered round here for a while and came across a gold leaf shop (remember the gold story??). Well this shop sold everything and anything covered in gold leaf ..... Jewellery, boxes, handbags, cakes, tea, sake with gold leaf and some makeup products. It was amazing.  We were directed outside to this small building in a small garden area.  The small building was literally covered in gold leaf - inside and out. Obviously they don't let you in there and I tried to take a photo - but hasn't really worked.  There's some money there!?!?!??

So moving on from here, we decided to tackle the gardens and castle. Kenroku-en Garden is one of Japan's top three gardens and is HUGE!!!!  This garden is gorgeous and lives up to its reputation..... And goes on for ever. The gardeners are starting to put poles on the trees - this is to protect the trees 
from heavy snowfall... Impressive!!!  We spent AGES in here just wandering round. Mam and Dad would love it here. I doubt we would get Dad out!! There's also little tea rooms and a tat stall (isn't there always a tat stall??). 

Time is moving on so on to the next stop .... Ninja-dera. Scott was looking forward to this one. However, when we got there, we were told we needed to make a reservation - but they let us join the next tour - Whoo hoo.  Now they tells us we have to have the guided tour and it's only in Japanese - doh!! But  they gave us a book that explained everything the guide was talking about.  Basically there are 23 room and 29 staircases and a number of hidden passages - all designed to protect the Fuedal Lord.   There were so many different ways to hide and also sneak up in the emery and cause them great pain - all pretty amazing stuff.  Local legend has it that there is a tunnel going from this temple to Kanazawa castle, but no one has been able to prove it..... It's a long way!!! 

At the end of the tour, the back page of our booklet tells us that this is a place of worship and that the Ninjas owning this temple  are a myth .... WTF???? Meh - what do they know.... There were too 
many trap doors for this not to have Ninjas!!!!!

Next stop - Samurai Town. It's starting to get dark now, but Scott wanted to see the Ninja and Samurai districts. They looked a lot like the Geisha district - wooden houses, but we found out that this area has nine of the original houses and are all replicas. Ahhh - never mind, they still looked good. 

We are now flagging a bit and we still have that 2 hour train journey home, so we decided to make a move.  It seemed to take forever to get back and it was after 9 when we finally made it home. I picked up some Onigiri from the Lawsons - that's a rice ball covered in seaweed and mine had salmon in the middle. Scrummy ...... Just enough to keep me going after a long day.

Time to pass out now..... Scott and I made a deal before we came out that if we did have a long day, the next day would be quieter .... A deals a deal, so quiet one tomorrow - Osaka!!

So until next time..... Oyasumi Nasai xoxox

Tea for two.......

Day 3

First of all..... Can I just ask, whoever turned up the heating in Kyoto, could you possibly turn it down a notch or two.... It is really really warm here at the moment ..... Got to 21 degrees today and I think I may have possibly got sunburn in November!!!!!  This is not good for someone who avoids the sun like the plague........

Anyway.... Onwards and upwards! We were out early this morning for our double header trip - we were off to Uji and a visit to the Fushimi Inari Shrine. 

Uji is only about a 15 minute journey from Kyoto, so nice and easy to get to.  Uji is well known for it's green tea and is home to what is believed to be the oldest tea shop in the world..... Tsuen (it's been serving tea since 1160). 

This is where I was going to stock up on some nice new tea to bring home and Uji didn't disappoint.  From the moment we got off the train, there were a multitude of shops and stalls selling and serving tea (bit of a nightmare for Scott being a coffee drinker haha). 

You can't really see them, but there are tea ladies on the gate.......

The main attraction here - apart from the tea, is the Byodoin Shrine - which is a UNESCO world heritage site. The shrine is surrounded by quite a large garden and as we found out today - is very popular!!!  It is also on the 10 yen coin......

There is also a museum and the last picture there is the Pheonix Hall  In the hall is an image of  Amida - and he is covered in gold leaf ... Quite impressive but you can't see that as I wasn't allowed to take photos. We spent quite a bit of time in here before moving on..... Mainly to try and find some shade as I was now starting to get sun-stroke!!!!  

This is a perfect opportunity to stop and sample some of the green tea offerings..... But in the form of ice cream!! 

We then moved on to the other side of Uji, by crossing a huge red bridge.... stopping to look at the views (plus there was a nice breeze from here to cool us down) ..... 

Over the river is the 'Tale of Genji' museum.  The Tale of Genji is a Japanese classic book and is considered to be the worlds first novel.  I had read the book a long time ago and fancied seeing the museum .... But it's closed on Monday booooo!! Never mind.....

We had a lovely walk along the riverside and went to the Ujigami Shrine....here there is a 'Ring of Wisdom' so I jumped through it - twice just to be sure ..... I now feel very wisdomous!!!!

We took in more of the surroundings and continued our walk along the river..... I think Scott has fallen in love with Uji.... And I don't blame him, it is gorgeous.

We made our way back to the train station via the tea shops and browsed (and maybe bought) the tea selections.

As we were already on the Nara line, we decided re-visit the Funishimi Inari shrine.  This is the place with the thousand of tori gates going up the mountain side.  Each gate has been donated by a company or a family and some of them go back decades.  

The last time we were here was in 2011 and it was fairly quiet - but today it was heaving!! There are signs all over saying that this shrine was voted the No1 spot to visit on Trip Advisor ..... And it seemed everyone was doing just that!!!

I'm sure Scott is in almost every photo as he seemed to photo bomb everyone .... Not his fault, he's just a lot taller than everyone else.  

After going through some of the gates.... We didn't do them all as they go right up the mountain and we were pushed for time (!) ....we sauntered back down towards the train station via the tat shops .... Great places - they sell everything!!! But I held off from buying anything as I am saving myself for later, plus I was laden down with tea!! Don't want to push it too soon .... Still got a ways to go yet!!!

Gat back to the apartment where we've both crashed.  Scott is trying the bath tonight to see if he can loosen up his back!! Should be interesting..... 

He also has a lot of planning to do as tomorrow is a big day .... Not only is it a Bullet Train day, but we are going to Kanazawa (about 2 hours out of Kyoto) and I plan to see a lot of things!!!

It's going to be an early start for us tomorrow.... So early night tonight .... 

So until next time .... Oyasumi nasai xxx

........ Octopus anyone????

Day 2

Well as expected..... It bloody rained ALL DAY!!! However, we now know the Japanese weather center gets it right and does a better job than the UK!!!!

We were both up early again (damn you jet lag) so we had a leisurely morning whilst deciding what to do.  It's definitely an indoor day today.  We were planning to go to Uji today .... But most of the things in Uji are outdoors and according to the forecast, the weather is going to be bright, sunny and warm for the rest of the week, so we have jiggled a few things round.

So today is Nishiki Market and checking out the designer shops in Gion.

Nishiki market is about 2km long and is all under cover (see we do know what we are doing).  The place is stuffed full of fresh food stalls - Lots of fish, veg and sweet stuff and also a load of craft shops and a lot of wine stalls!! Can we see why we came???  It the. Leads onto the Teramachi Arcade which is more coffee shops and clothes for the young and trendy ..... Hmm - maybe not going to spend too long in there!!!

The best part is that there are loads of samples around.  This is good and bad..... good because we (well mainly me - he's not that brave) get to try some different food stuff and bad because the labels are all in Japanese (obviously) and it can go wrong sometimes!!!!

It's impossible to pass a stall and not try anything..... And I had already made up my mind that I was going to do just that!! I'm going to try everything...... I may regret this in the morning!!

First stall.... An amazing array of veg in various colours and in various pickled type state.  I think I had daikon - a type of radish but that was the only thing I could recognise.  I did have something that was bright blue.  It was a bit crunchy and was a little spicy but I will never know what it was.

I then accidently hit the spicy crisp stall.  Well - in their defence, the crisps were not spicy, it was the spicy sprinkles they were putting on them.  The bright blue something that I had earlier no longer left a lingering taste in my mouth as it was now on fire!!!!!  

OK - so that's why there is a green tea stall next door giving out samples..... Grab a freebie there to help cool the flames!!!

Not only is there samples of almost everything, but there are stalls cooking hot food...... So I grabbed a sweet potato, carrot and pumpkin cake (on a stick) ...... Nom nom nom - delicious!!!

I'm now back to hitting the 'buffet tables' of samples and basically trying very thing which Scott stands back and let's me get on with it.  He does point to some stuff and gets me to try it 'for him' though I'm not too sure what that means!!!!! 

Moving on slowly ..... It was very busy. I think everyone had the same idea of what to do on a rainy day haha!! We then came to 'that' stall..... The one I promised I wouldn't pass this time ..... The octopus on a stick stall!!! 

This time Scott is feeling brave and goes for it...... Two octopi on a stick please...... The nice lady (who asked us if we were up for the challenge!!!) told us there was egg in the head.  I thought it was a misunderstanding between her English and my Japanese, so I politely nodded and off we went with our food.

One octopus on a stick!!! 

Scott wanted to eat his in one of the side alleys just in case it didn't stay in..... First taste and I was a leg biter..... The tentacles did stick to my tounge  a little but I can honestly say it  was not unpleasant at all.... It didn't taste too bad .  I then went for the head - and she was right.... There was a small hard boiled egg in the head.  I guess once they scoop out the octopus head innerds ... They need to fill it with something to make it look like a octopus head... Hence the boiled egg!! Gave the head a rather strange taste!!!!

So now I'm needing a rest and maybe a coffee to swill all those samples around.

Pickled cucumber!

Sushi samples 

Scott has discovered the joy that is Daiso .... Or the 100yen store.  There is one at the end of the road and we have been in there every night since we got here..... He's loving the place and has bought alsorts of crap for the apartment!!!  I'm getting a little worried about his addiction..... Especially when he found one in the Teramachi section of the market - and it is much bigger than ours!!! He was desperate to go in to see if they had anything different ...... Well I suppose I have Tokyu Hands, he can have Daiso!!! 

Now back to the apartment for food

We are now sorting out what we are going to do on a bright sunny day tomorrow........ Think it's going to be Uji for lots of green tea and temple hopping.

Until tomorrow ..... Oyasumi nasai xxx