Tokyo robots & gelato

Today we got up and out a bit earlier to make the most of the day, we booked onto the Tokyo Localized morning walking tour starting at cafe near Akihabara. It covered the route we were planning to do so we thought we might as well tag along, it was about 4km and took in the landmarks below.

The tour guide had lived in America for a while but returned to Japan and decided to set up his own tour company. He was really informative about the history of Tokyo but some of the information given about Japan culture we already knew from the tours in Kyoto & Osaka.

We had 2 breaks close together so the tour went on for over 3hrs which seemed a little long. If you haven't already done a tour I would suggest going along as it was good but for us it wasn't really needed.

We ended in Ueno Park which is highly rated on things to do in Tokyo. It's pretty big and busy but the main attractions are the zoo and museums which we decided not to go into.

The good thing was that we passed by the Ameyayokocho Market on the walking tour and decided to head back there for food. It was an experience & we jumped right in and sat at the busiest table which was so cramped, we then selected food from the pictures as everything was in Japanese. Thankfully it worked out ok and we liked what we had and it only cost about £10. Sadly we didn't get any pictures as I couldn't get my phone out my bag as it was too small and busy.

After refuelling we made our way over to Sensō-ji again the place was rammed. There's some really nice indoor arcades where we found Italian gelato which had to be sampled even though we could hear rumblings of thunder and the sky looked really grey! Thankfully it didn't rain on us and we made it round the shrine area before heading back to the hotel via a stop at the Pokemon store for Ben to pick up a Charmander to make up the set as they didn't have one in the Osaka store. It made a real change to get back to the hotel in time for a bit of relaxation in the public bath before our evening entertainment.

On the way to the Robot Restaurant we had Yakisoba and it was really tasty, we even had a large beer which is hard to find in Japan and it only cost ¥750, the same as a 350ml had cost us the day day before!

We'd both heard mixed reviews about The Robot Restaurant but I wanted to give it a try so Ben's mum brought him a ticket for his birthday (not influenced by me at all). We didn't know what to expect but our friends had been about a week before and told us it was amazing when we met them for dinner in Kyoto.

The main surprise is how narrow the performance space is with 3 rows of seats either side, the width of the space including seats can't be much wider than 11/12m and you really can't believe the robots and props that appear from each side of the stage. I don't know if there are different shows but from what I could make out the story was humans with the help of dinosaurs v robots and i'm not sure who won before it turned into a dance/party with crazy characters and huge robots. The dancers were so much better than I expected. I'd definitely recommend as it entertaining, we went to the late show at 9:30pm after food, you can go earlier and eat there but I only saw people with large popcorn buckets and I don't think it would be a gourmet dining experience so i'd suggest just go for the show with an open mind!

Afterwards we got talking to a couple from Canada and took them with us to a bar which was recommended to us. We sat with a few other people and it was good to have a laugh as it had just been us for a couple of weeks! We jumped in a taxi about 2:30am as the Gia Gate area was all closed up when we left the bar and the metro stops running between 12-1am depending on the line.

It's a Mario!

We started our day with a fantastic view of a game at the Menjijinguya baseball stadium where there was a game on, if we had more time we would have watched more than just the one innings, but we had the whole of Tokyo to explore in just 4 days so we cracked on...

As Tokyo is the largest city in the world! We decided to focus this day on the central Tokyo area. It was another glorious day so it seemed perfect to wander around the Imperial Palace and East Gardens.

After a short walk around the baseball stadium we took the subway line a couple of stops to Hanzomon and walked along the perimeter of the grounds to the park entrance hoping to find a bakery or cafe for lunch but as we didn't find anything and we were hungry hippos we detoured to a local cafe to satisfy our craving.

After returning to the entrance we proceeded through the gate and into the East Gardens. We found out that the Imperial Palace itself is mostly out of bounds with the exception of two tours daily around a small section of the outer perimeter and given the new emperor had been sworn in just the day before we weren't sure these would be happening. The gardens are well kept and contained by a moat separating it from the inner palace and the city, we spent an hour or so wondering around the various levels. It provided great city scape views, reminding me of good times in Central Park New York (although it's much small).

We exited the park through the Ōte-mon Gate on the East side. It was pretty clear that was the entrance most people use by the queue, we didn't have any queue on the North gate (Kita-hanebashi-mon). We headed in the direction of Ginza to check out the famous shopping district, not that we could afford to spend our money there with its Tiffany's, Louis Vuittons etc...

It's a bit like Oxford St or 5th Avenue in New York but the sheer size and number of department stores is over whelming, you could easily spend days and thousands of ¥ here if you're a shopaholic BUT we are not.... so we headed to where we probably fit in better... Yup you've guess it the FISH market. The Tsukiji fish market (outer) to be exact and although the inner market has moved, it still has it's charm for tourists and locals a like by providing fish, crabs, lobsters and a variety of street food. We decided to try the local tuna as this market was once famous for it's tuna auctions so we found a stall preparing the tuna and making delicious looking sushi right in front of us. It was extremely fresh and definitely delicious although a touch pricey we got 4 pieces for about £7 but still reasonable compared with England.

After this we retraced our steps to Ginza and got on the subway line picking up a 72 hour subway pass that's available to tourists for just over £10, if you show your passport at one of the various resellers including a few major subway stations.

In the early evening it was time for us to head over to Tokyo Bay area to do MariCAR, not in anyway related to Nintendo other than it is called MariCAR which used to be called MariKAR and allowed people to dress up as characters from Super Mario.... but as I said not in anyway related to Nintendo or indeed Super Mario.

It was a little walk from Shin-Kiba station through an industrial park that was reasonably quiet but felt safe enough and as we turned the final corner we saw the go karts, my excitement levels rising significantly at this point. After a short registration process we were told to go upstairs to get ready which involved choosing the costumes (unfortunately no Mario characters anymore after the lawsuit a couple of years ago) but luckily Disney Kart doesn't exist yet so I found a Woody costume (Toy Story is actually one of my favourite films) and Laura got a Sully (of Monster's Inc fame).

The staff were reasonable young and seemed quite relaxed about talking us through the dos and don't, how to drive the kart and safety instructions (of which there weren't many). We were given a pair of plastic glasses but if you have your own from cycling or such I would recommend it as the glare on the ones we had in the dark made it hard to see the hand signals from the lead driver.

Nao was leading our group of 6 and Ryan was tailing to ensure we all stayed together, our group started off a little nervously as go karting on the road is definitely a new one for me! The instructors were great though and starting in the bay area there wasn't much traffic allowing us to get used to the karts. We were told by friends (Jill and Dave), that had done it a few days earlier, to get the front seats and you won't need a camera as the lead driver takes a lot of photos this was a great tip!

We weaved through the streets of Tokyo for around 3 hours covering all the major sights including Rainbow Bridge, Shinjuku, Shibuya + Crossing, Harijuku, Skytower, Tokyo Gate Bridge and many more.. We stopped at a Telecom building and had a break from the Karts towards the end. We took a lift up and got an incredible view of the Tokyo skyline (included in the price) this was an unexpected surprise.

Overall I thought the tour was well worth the price (around £80 including £5 insurance for the kart) it's a once in a lifetime chance to explore Tokyo in a completely different way and I would highly recommend doing it around sunset as we got fantastic views on the Rainbow Bridge.

We were out Karting from about 6:15pm to 9pm including a 15 min stop off for the view and this was plenty of time and we covered so much distance also the traffic was general quiet and respectful of the karts (occasionally a car would sandwich the group but it felt safe, although a helmet wouldn't go a miss).

We headed back to Shibuya for food as we were starving by now and had a Yakisoba meal with Gyozas from one of the first restaurants we found as we were both flagging by this point food was okay nothing to write home about.

Get on your bike Mt. Fuji

After all the rain yesterday we woke up to blue sky and cloud and this was our view when walking round the corner from our hostel

We felt so lucky and jumped on the bus with our bags to drop them off at the bike hire shop right next to the station (they also sell ice cream 🍦). We decided to hire a standard bike and it was absolutely fine for what we needed, they cost us ¥1500 each. If you have an ok level of fitness I'd say don't waste money on paying extra for a mountain, cross or electric bike. As we hired bikes it only cost us ¥300 per bag to store for the day which was a bargain as the other shops were ¥500 each. In fact we picked up a brochure from the station and there were vouchers for bike shops inside so we got another ¥200 off the total price.

We ended up heading off about 11am riding downhill to Kawaguchi lake when we got there we took a right to go anti-clockwise around the lake. The paths were fairly quiet and we were surprised that there weren't more people out cycling as it was such a nice day.

The paths around Kawaguchi were really easy for riding.  The was a little road section but there wasn't much traffic so this felt fine.

After about 8km we took a right turning up hill towards Lake Saiko. The ride to the lake is about 2km and it is pretty challenging we made it up ok but on heavy bikes with only 3 gears I think some people would be walking and pushing the bike up!

Once we got there we took a left to go round the lake clockwise. The main thing to note is that it's all on the road there's no riverside paths but there are great photo opportunities especially at the other side of the lake.

We made it to the halfway point about 2pm and decided to stop for food we found a burger restaurant which was ok but nothing special. We then left about 2:30pm and passed by Iyashionsato Japanese Village which was really pretty and again had great views of Mt. Fuji.

We then carried on cycling round the shorter side of the lake, the views were amazing so I would suggest riding this way around. However it was busy with coaches, buses and cars and I felt like I needed a helmet although most cars gave us enough room!

On reaching Lake Kawaguchi again the ride is a mix of paths and roads. We stopped for an ice cream in a small park area and watched a guy jet skiing and flipping in the air!

When we finished we still had about 45mins before we needed to return the bikes so we made the short ride over  Kawaguchiko Ohashi Bridge and then headed back up to the bike shop & station.

Our experience of the bus journey to Tokyo was so slow we were 30 minutes late leaving and 1hr 30 mins late arriving so it took 3hrs 30mins. Not sure if this was because it's golden week but it felt like a long journey! We should have been more prepared and brought some food as we didn't arrive until 10pm and we were so hungry!

Overall we covered about 35km in 6hrs we did stop a lot to take pictures and we didn't rush so I think most people would make it round both lakes in this time. If it's a sunny day like ours you're in for a treat. 

Travel to the Japanese Lakes!

Today was our longest travel day in Japan as we were heading to Kawaguchiko in the five lakes region near Mount Fuji. This involved getting a bullet train from Osaka to Mishima station where we had a quick change to get a bus we booked in advance (in the UK) knowing it was Golden Week.

Luckily for us we actually got to the Osaka-shin station early and caught a bullet train giving us chance to grab some food at a local restaurant near the station in Mishima which was very welcome.

We set out at around 8:30am and arrived at our accommodation around 3:30pm although we did spend a little time at Kawaguchiko station sorting our onward journey to Tokyo. Throughout our journey surprisingly it continued to rain.... And it didn't stop all evening! We got absolutely soaked just walking to check out the local area and Lake Kawaguchiko itself, again another day where takeaway food would have been welcome.

We just had to hope that tomorrow would be a better day!

Osaka

We didn't make plans for Osaka as we just knew we wanted to eat, drink and see the neon lights of the city. When booking in England originally we only planned to stay one night but we changed our plans. Unfortunately the first Airbnb we found wasn't available for a second night and we couldn't cancel without paying so we decided to split the city and move from Kita-Ku to Namba.

After a nice morning stroll down by the river watching some rowers we checked out and made our way over to our new place via the Pokemon store at Namba station.

This was where our frustrations started. It took us an hour to get across to our next apartment as it was really hard to work out the stations, we finally worked out that we had to get a subway line which wasn't included on our JR pass but it was only ¥300 for both of us so it didn't break the bank. The annoying part was carrying bags up and down stairs as there's no lifts or escalators. The next task was to open the post box to collect the key, we wasted an hour trying to work out the instructions which really didn't translate well into English. In the end we resorted to Google and if anyone else has trouble I hope this also helps you! https://www.leopalace21.com/custhelp/en/other_f/00787.html.

We would defiantly recommend staying in the Kita area and travelling across the city using the JR loop line as this runs really regularly and pretty late into the evening.

Once we finally checked in we were ready to go on the free walking tour but sadly had no time for lunch so just picked something up from Family Mart. I'd recommend these walks as you always learn something new, there was lots of talk about food, toilets and Japan's education system! We of course walked down many busy streets full of bars and restaurants and went into the market. We saw lots of crazy street lights and signs including the famous running man. We also tried some local cuisine called: Takoyaki which is savoury dumpling made with diced octopus, be careful its piping hot!

After the tour we had another walk around and ended up having dinner in a restaurant along the water front and then a drink in the smallest bar ever down an alleyway. Not such a bad day after all!

Are we in Japan or Manchester!?!

We decided to get up and out today as we were travelling to Osaka and we wanted to explore Miyajima island. We'd planned to do a hike to the highest point on the island, Mount Misen but it was bouncing down (raining). The mountain was covered in mist and even Japan's largest island Honshu wasn't visible. We decided to do a short walk that included Senjokaku Pavilion, Toyokuni Shrine five-story pagoda, Itsukushima Floating Torii Gate and Momijidani Park. It was slightly surprising how many tourists were already up and about even with the awful weather. They're resilient and patient folks these (mainly) Japanese tourists.

Momijidani Park wasn't really a park as such it was more like a nature trail and included bridges, waterfalls and more deer. It winds it's way up through a wooded area up to the ropeway and Mt Misen climbing trail where we turned around as the weather defeated us this time! I'll get you need time Gadget!!! (I mean weather).

We decided to make a stop in Himeji on the way to Osaka as we'd read good things about the castle and the weather still wasn't particularly great. We boarded the ferry, back to the mainland, a little after 10am and arrived into Himeji via a local service back to Hiroshima and a Shinkansen to Himeji about 1pm.

We found a local pizza restaurant for lunch not too far from the station as it was just over 1km to the castle and the current queue estimate to enter the main keep was 2 hours!

When we arrived at the castle grounds there was indeed a lot of tourists even at 3pm. We admired the castle from just inside the walls (it's free to go into the outer part) and took a few photos before the heavens opened again!!! This time we'd just purchased our tickets, about £7 each, to enter the main keep. The website still seem to suggest a couple of hours wait....we got very wet but on the plus side it did only take about 45 minutes to get into the castle.

It was an impressive building and has survived wars, earthquakes and fires so is orginal* The main keep is a wooden structure that contain 6 stories but there isn't anything to see on the various level until you reach the 6th floor. This floor contains a small shrine and has a multitude of windows facing all directions allowing us to see the sights of Himeji city and the castle grounds.

After re-tracing our steps back to the station we got on a JR train bound for the third largest city in Japan, Osaka. We were staying in the Kita Ward so reasonably close to Osaka station (in fact only one stop on the JR loop train). It was one of those evening where you just want to get a takeaway and watch a movie but as we don't really know Japanese, didn't know of any local takeaways and we were in a new city we braved the outside once again!

We headed to the food and entertainment district of Kitashinchi and found a quante Japanese restaurant that had a fish I'd never tried before called bonito, tastes and looks a little like tuna. After food we searched for a bar near by and we found one called Captain Kangaroo... We had to go!! It was a fun bar serving over 50 beers (most bottled including Newcastle Brown Ale) and had more of a western vibe to it. 

Hiroshima & Miyajima

Hiroshima & Miyajima
We tried to book on a train to Hiroshima but sadly they were fully booked this meant trying the unreserved carriages. This wasn't such an easy task this time as both trains were really busy. However we did get seats together after a couple of stops and the time went quickly but people were standing the whole way down the train so getting off with big bags was challenging. We weng to thd main storage area for bags and a nice lady took us to another baggage area below the train station which was half the price.

We spent about 5hrs roaming around the key sights of Hiroshima. Firstly we took a walk down to the Peace Gardens this was our only little bit of black tourism. This is where we saw the only structure standing following the atomic bomb 70 years ago which was sad to see. We then took a look around the castle gardens and museum/tower which has some English translations which we haven't seen in other places and only costs ¥370 each so it's a bargain.

We then transferred over to Miyajima it's really easy on the ferry as it's included on the JR Pass and you get to see the floating gate on route. Although it was a cloudy day we got some good evening pictures as we arrived about 6:30pm and stayed over night so it wasn't too busy.

We had a beer at the brewery overlooking the gate and across the water to the mainland but be warned it was £15 for 2 large beers so it's not cheap but the beer was good, the crazy thing is that last orders are about 7pm as it closes by 8pm!

We then took a wonder to find food about 7:30pm, as it was a Sunday most restaurants were closed and those that are open stop serving really early about 8pm so make sure you get in somewhere in plenty of time whatever day you're staying. We both ended up having a curry dish one veggie and the other with scallops which is the islands speciality. Apparently the Japanese eat curry on a Sunday so we were just following tradition - we think!