Our Brief Tour of Japan

2015 got off to a cracking start as we landed in Tokyo on New Years Day. During the flight a friendly Japanese man taught us how to use chopsticks properly and went through our Japan guide book with Alex and gave him his suggestions of the best places to visit. He slightly underestimated the taxi fare from the airport though, telling us it would cost 500 yen yet it set us back 10,000 yen.

We spent the first four days in Tokyo. Having arrived very late, waking up the following morning was a little disorientating so we spent our first day getting our bearings and wandering around in bewilderment. We went to Shibuya crossing, supposedly one of the busiest crossings in the world, saw Shinjuku and walked through the shoppings streets of Ginza which basically resembles Oxford Street. We tried to embrace the Japanese culture and sampled different foods throughout the day including noodles, curries, Japanese green tea, broths/soups and horrific hot coffee in a can sold in vending machines at almost every corner.

On our second day in Tokyo we went to Senso-ji Temple and the hectic surrounding markets. It was unbelievably busy as we found out that the Japanese people visit a number of temples in the first few days of the new year to say thanks for the previous year and to pray for the year ahead. Part of this ritual included throwing coins into grids on the floor of the temple; we bowed our heads and throw our coins too. We really enjoyed the buzzing atmosphere here and it was certainly a highlight of our time in Tokyo.

On day three we escaped the busy streets and went to Ueno Park. We enjoyed a walk through the park and went to Ueno Zoo seeing two Giant Pandas there. In the evening we went to the owl cafe; this recently opened and people line the streets each day to try and get in. This 'cafe' was actually a very small room and no one there spoke any english. The encounter was pretty strange but we enjoyed holding a number of different owls whilst there.

Next we headed to Hakone on the Shinkansen bullet train. We bought a sightseeing pass and experienced spectacular views of Mt. Fuji via 5 different modes of transport, the mountain railway, cable car, ropeway, a pirate ship and finally a bus.

The following day we arrived at Kyoto and checked into our Japanese style room at a capsule hostel near the station for the next two nights. During our time in Kyoto we went to the bamboo forest and Nishiki food market. The highlight of Kyoto was our visit to Kinkaku-ji temple, known as the Golden Pavilion. The temple consists of three stories and the top two stories are covered with pure gold leaf. Here I purchased 'good health and a long life' for the very reasonable sum of 400 yen in the form of a small hanging purple ornament, much to Alex's amusement. 

Our next stop was a very chilly Osaka. We wrapped up and visited Osaka castle, one of the more famous castles in Japan and we could see why. It consists of 8 levels, which have been made into a museum and an observation deck. The following day we sidetracked from our culturally rich trip and spent a fun-filled day at Japan's Universal Studies, and the recently opened Harry Potter World that they have there. This was an excellent idea until we queued for our first ride only to discover that obviously it was all in Japanese. Nevertheless we drank butter beers at the three broomsticks and tested our imaginations on Japanese simulators. We topped off our day by devouring two full racks of ribs at The Outback Steakhouse. How very cultural indeed.

The final destination of our 10 day tour of Japan was Hiroshima. Having studied history I was particularly looking forward to visiting Hiroshima and learning more about the devastation of the first ever dropped Atomic Bomb. We went to the Peace Park Memorial and found the museum there to be both heart wrenching and highly interesting. We saw the Atomic Bomb Dome; the ruins were preserved when the reconstruction of Hiroshima began and consequently serve as a memorial to the people who were killed on the 6th August 1945. Our stay in Hiroshima was a highlight for both of us. 

Safety checks were taking place on the
Atomic Bomb Dome hence the scaffolding

So, what have we learnt from our first 10 days in Japan?
1. Japanese Katsu Curry is a safe food choice, 
2. The Japanese people are very friendly and happy to help you if they can, but they understand written english much better than spoken,
3. The rail network is excellent
4. The donuts here do not contain delicious jam but rather cold, mushy red beans, much to our bitter disappointment,
5. Do not play with the buttons on the toilets in Japan because you will get wet...



The next chapter of our travels gets a little snowier....