Japan 2009

I haven't updated this Japan blog in a long time. I have a lot more photos and stories to share as I just came back again from Japan, again in March, but in 2009. The Cherry blossoms were out earlier this season and I took a lot of photos. I will be adding a lot more photos soon.

more updates

pictures of Tokyo Tower at night, Ueno park during the springtime Sakura cherry blossom season, Kyoto Maiko advertisment i saw at the Shinkansen Shinjuku station, Kyoto tower near the station, Pachinko parlour, a large temple in Kyoto, and Kobe tower and harbor in Kobe, Japan.

Japan trip Spring 2008

Another wonderful trip back to Japan and this time it is just after 8 months since going back in July, that i go again in mid-March along with my good friend and co-worker Miguel. It was his first trip overseas and first time in Japan. Fortunately for us, i have been to Tokyo enough to get around ok, and even know the crazy train routes, destinations, areas, and some of the language to get by ok.

We got our Japan airlines flight#61 out of LAX going to Narita, Japan at 1:45pm, and arrived in Narita, Japan at 5:12pm(1:12am LA time). As usual, i stayed up the entire time, and it makes the adjustment much easier, as it is easy going to Asia, versus coming back when jet-lag hits more. After customs, we caught our limo-bus(just a greyhound type bus, nothing really special) to our hotel in Shinagawa Prince. I highly recommend staying while in Tokyo, at the Shinagawa Prince hotel in Shinagawa. The rates are reasonable, and the hotel is large, nice and right across the street from Shinagawa station, easy assess to the JR-Yamanote line in Tokyo, Shinkansen bullet trains to Kyoto and elsewhere in Japan, and other JR/Subway trains. We finally arrived at the hotel around 8:30pm, checked it, unloaded our baggage in the room, and then went out to grab a quick dinner at the local ramen(noodle and some rice) shop nearby. I had Japanese soba-buckwheat noodle, rice-ball(onigiri with dried fish), and curry and rice for 690 yen. At this one place, you obtain a ticket from the machine after putting your yen-coins in the machine, hand over the ticket to the cook, and soon after he brings you a tray of what you ordered. The water you serve from a cup, as cold water and ice come out at once from the machine. A cheap, fast, convenient way to have a meal, and i ate here again a week later, having the soba, and rice for dinner that day. We then after got some snacks at the local grocery store, some tasty snacks, and drink to bring back to the hotel settling in Tokyo. They close around 10pm so we got there just before 9:30pm and bought even some strawberries for 610yen, but some of the best ever that i have ever tried, some green tea haagen daus icecream which they do not have here in the states, and some ricecrackers-peanuts, and drinks.

more Kyoto July 13th part 2

I added some more photos of the afternoon tour. Some shops along the way, up the hillside to the Kyomizu Temple in Kyoto. It was raining a lot, and we had our umbrellas out most of the time while walking around taking in the sights and taking a lot of photos. The little shops had a lot of little souvenirs, anything from cell phone straps, to postcards, to keychains, to various teas, snacks, and other foods and items.

July 13th, more Kyoto

The JTB tour came by to pick us up by shuttle bus promptly at 8am from the hotel. It was a full day that started the morning portion of the tour. We first headed to the Golden Pavillion, which was my favorite part of the tour. This was my second time in Kyoto and second time seeing the Golden Pavillion, but last time was self-guided. I only posted up photos first of the Heian Shrine, and then the Golden Pavillion. Notice in one of the pictures i posted up, of sake barrels. I didn't provide photos of the other part of the tour, but i will include more photos later. The next part of the morning tours were of Nijo Castle(my second time here as well), and of the Imperial Palace. The afternoon tour continued after a lunch provided by JTB, it was a lunch buffet of Japanese food, and it was good. The afternoon tour, and i have one photo showing the orange building structure of part of the Heian Shrine. The following temple was of San Juu Sen Temple, and followed by the breathtaking views of Kyomizu Temple. I will be provided those later. After the tour ended, we headed straight to Gion Districe, and finally found the Gion Corner and saw an hour good show performance of Maiko Dancing as well as other types of performers. We then ate in downtown Kyoto-Gion District and had Italian food, quite good and quite unusual. Earlier as we were walking to find the Gion District theater, i actually saw a real Maiko walking with her umbrella in the wet rainy streets of the Gion District, quite nostalgic, and very Kyoto! I didn't get a clear upclose picture, since it was from afar and she was walking very briskly even in her high platform geisha-like shoes, but meant for Maiko.

July 12, Kyoto, Nara

Today, caught the Shinkansen-bullet train from Tokyo Station to Kyoto Station. We boarded the 9:50am tain and arrived in Kyoto around 12:26pm, in just over 2 1/2 hours one way. We were picked up as our tour group, JTB tours. Our tour guide lead us to New Miyako hotel for a lunch, as provided by JTB tours, the food was quite good. Then afterwards, the tour picked us up and some other people from various hotels to the Afternoon Nara tour. We saw the tame yet feisty deer at Nara park, which is about less than 40 minutes from Kyoto station. The deer are very calm, but if you feed them crackers, ( you can buy some for 100 yen to feed the deer), they will surround you in numbers, so be aware...lol

The weather conditions were not very optimal, as it was light winds with light rain most of th day. The tour to Nara was quite nice, as we visited a few big large temples and the Nara park which supposively holds the 2000 deer. Later we checked back in the hotel after the afternoon tour ended. The hotel we stayed at was about a 10 to 15 min taxi drive from the Kyoto Station, at the Miyako Westin Kyoto Hotel, which is a nice hotel.

July 11th, Hakone

Today my parents and I got on the train, reserved seating on the "Romance Car". We reserved our tickets the previous day from the ticket booth, reserve/non-served seating for the Romance Car. It is a little extra, but in my opinion worth the extra money to spend for the "romance car" reserved seating. It is about $14 or dollars extra round trip per person, but you get a reserved seat, and it is 30 min faster each way. Hakone to Tokyo is about 1hr 30 min, probably close to two hours with the regular train. We left Shinjuku station around 9:30am and arrived in Hakone about 90 min later at 11am. We discovered the rainy weather all around, and how choppy the water was at Lake Ashi, where Mt Fuji lays ahead. But due to the cloud cover, seems to happy every time i visit Japan during the summer months, i could not view the magnificant mountain, that i can only imagine seeing. The boat on Lake Ashii which i have been on once 4 years prior, was currently closed due to the bad weather. The Ropeway was also closed down due to the weather. I have been on that one before as well. The scenery was very nice, and green, but it was quite rainy and a bit windy. We took the bus around Hakone area from the station. We grabbed lunch at a nearby restarant along the way, after we had gotten off from the bus. We had soba noodles with tempura for lunch. Later we caught another bus to get off to see the outdoor Picasso museum. This was my second visit to the outdoor museum. They gave out umbrellas to use at the museum, but not to keep. After we caught a tram to go up the hill, which was nice, great scenery all around. After we came back down, we were about ready to head back to civillization, to the big city of Tokyo. For what it is worth, Hakone which is about 90 minutes from Shinjuku Station, Tokyo, is a great get-a-way excursion type place to see more of the green lush country side of Japan. Mt Fuji is here, Lake Ashii, and plenty of outdoor onsens, and other outdoor nature type activities. It is away from the hussle and bussle of the big city of Japan. Personally, I think it is nice to visit and get away, as you see another side of Japan. I want to see Takayama, another countryside area outside of Nagoya area. But i prefer the big city environment of Tokyo, there is so much to see, do in Tokyo.