It´s been some time since then, but this summer we spent 2 weeks in Japan, taking advantage that it was close to South Korea, and before I can get back on track to writing sometimes (work and schedules have been crazy for a very long time now) I wanted to explain a bit about that.
We've never been to Japan before, but it always has been an attractive destination for us, of course. As anime/Manga fans, technology fans and just travel enthusiasts, there's a lot of things that make Japan interesting for us. However, it's an expensive place and quite far, so until now we had not really organised anything to visit it.
So this summer there was a break between two intense work periods and we booked a flight, and some places to stay. We decided to visit Osaka and Kyoto first, and then decide from there but finish in Tokyo. For Tokyo, when we talked with our friend Sara who lives there, she offered her house (for which we're really grateful, plus it was nice to know we'd see her).
The flight to Osaka had issues becasue of typhoons, and we had to reroute to Tokyo at the last minute. That was annoying, but we managed to grab the Shinkansen (High speed train) to Osaka right after the flight and we were ok.
The first impressions we got from this arrival was that Japan is a lot more prepared for tourists/non-japanese speakers than China or Korea. It was really easy to get all the necessary information, and at any time there were plenty of indications. That is not to say that it was very very easy, since Tokyo, even just form the airport, seemed to have quite a complex railway map....
The shinkansen is like any other speed train, but it is amazing how often they pass, the one going to Osaka takes 3 hours but there was one every 5-10 minutes. We arrived to Osaka and it was raining, of course, but the typhoon felt mild,not sure if it was but it felt just like rain.
After arriving to the station we had to get to our apartment, but Osaka also had a very well defined subway line and it was easy to get there. The place we got was close to the center and it was quite nice, it had all we needed, plus some touches that are very Japanese, like the sliding doors. We arrived quite late and destroyed from the trip, and we just went to sleep.
Next day we started visiting Osaka and our impressions were good. The city felt very curious, with shopping streets covered with glass/plastic roofs connecting the buildings, protecting us from possible bad weather. There were lots of people of course, and lots of flashy thingies lile giant king crab figures,including movement, in front of restaurants and other shops. The streets were narrow, and not many cars were moving around. Cars in japan are really curious, since there's a surprising amount of very square,box like cars. They looked very strange for us, but they seemed popular. Also there was a lot of people just using bikes or walking.
In this city we visited the aquarium, which was really impressive. Without considering the morality of it, it had whale sharks and other really big types of sharks and rays, and it was quite amazing to see at such close distances. We also visited an owl café, which was pitiful but the diferent animals that were there were very cute. We also visited some playgrounds for Elay, and some small attractions, and in general he loved it.
We also went for dinner one night to a shabushabu restaurant,and we had special beef. I don't think it was kobe beef,but I have to say it was incredibly delicious. The beef seemed to melt in the mouth, and it had an amazing taste, very noticeable without being too strong,and it was also very tender. In general we also tried different places to eat, it was not always easy but we tried very good Japanese food in there. We didn't eat sushi though,that was harder to find (apart from places that seemed too expensive or touristic).
We really liked our stay in Osaka,and next we would visit Kyoto. It was around this time that,when planning what to do next,we saw that we were visiting things in a vacational period for Japan and it was hard to book places, so we decided to go to Tokyo sooner than we thought and move around from there. Sara had no problem with that, which was perfect for us,plus there is a lot of things to do in and around Tokyo anyway. We also decided to buy aa special train ticket that woild allow us to travel with no limit using most trains,including shinkansen, for a week. After deciding that, we checked what to visit in Kyoto.
Kyoto is pretty close to Osaka,and it had a more traditional feeling to it,being also famous for temple areas and some old streets. We spent only 2 days in there,but we also liked it very much. We went to one of the temples, we're not fans of them but what we visited was nice and had curious details. We also managed to walk around the bamboo forest,that we loved, and through some old districts with very traditional -looking small wooden houses all around. Kyoto felt somehow older than Osaka, with more traditional places,but we enjoyed it.
All these days we were warned it would rain,and in the end it was sunny and hot and we kept finishing the day totally exhausted, but we kept liking what we were seeing^^.
On our last Kyoto day, that we needed to move to Tokyo at night, we decided to visit the famous deer Park in Nara, also close by. We went by train, and it was again easily indicated since lots of tourists wanted to visit it. I thought we may see some deer or need to walk a bit for them,but quite soon we started seeing grass areas full of them. They were quite calm and quite used to tourist, also clearly asking for food since you could buy special crackers for them. Of course, we bought crackers,and it was quite a funny experience. The deer when they see you have some surround you and try to eat and nibble at your clothes and have no shame whatsoever. It's even scary because they keep surprising you when you don't expect them touching your rear pocket and similar,but it was a funny moment in general. We spent a very nice and calm day feeding the deer and visiting a bit of the park, but we were mostly focused on the deer^^.
After this,we went to Tokyo. Well,actually Sara's house was in Chiba, but Chiba is part of the big metropolitan area that Tokyo is part of. This area is monstrous, full of people and with a big train and subway network that is sometimes hard to navigate. In Tokyo we spent the rest of the days, but travelling around.
On the next days we did several activities. One of the first ones was to visit the Hitachi Seaside Flower Park, which was not in a very colourful season but was really nice and calm, easy to move around with a rental bike, and quite beautiful nevertheless. There were some very funny-looking round plants, for example, that seemed to bounce with the wind. The area had also attractions, and in general we spent a nice day in there. The only problem was to get back, since there was no information in English and in general people didn't speak much of it, so we were not sure exactly about the time we could take the bus, and we used one that took forever to reach the station, since it went all around the place. It was much cheaper than the first one we used to get there though.
Another day we visited a bit of Yokohama, another city in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Well, Yokohama alone is huge, so we visited just a small coastal area with some shopping malls and other attractions. We used again the Shinkansen to get there, and we had the luck to reach a station where only a few types of them stopped. Because of that, you could see the ones that pass every few minutes going through the central tracks, without stopping, at full speed, and it was hypnotic how fast they went. Yokohama itself looked pretty modern, and we visited the Mitsubishi museum, which had interesting machines and games, like a flight simulator where you needed to take off and land.
We wanted to see mount Fuji, so we used another day to do this very long round trip that used a lot of different trains and transports. However we were unlucky, and all the trip that day there was an intense fog covering everything. We did use plenty of different vehicles and what little we could see looked really nice. It was also eerie sometimes, how little you could see, making this nice effect for example with cable cars, where the cables disappear and it seems you´re floating in the middle of nowhere...
The rest of the days we stayed in Tokyo per se, and visited a bit of the city, although it's such a huge place it's hard to cover much. We visited Akihabara twice, and it was quite an experience. Akihabara is the "geekiest" neighbourhood, with lots of electronic shops plus also lots of anime/manga shops, weird bars (like maid bars, or gundam bars, or such other things), old arcades, some erotic shops and just a mixture of geeky things and toys of all kinds. The place is frankly overwhelming and full of people, and there's just so many things that are curious or nice that I basically got blocked and didn't really buy anything almost,just a couple of presents for other people and a few practical things. I really enjoyed the retro video-game shops, but again, I ended up not buying anything anywhere, which is a shame but oh well...I was really just blocked from too much choice and things.
We also visited a theme park area in the centre, which was a lot of fun and Elay loved it. It was very nice to go up to rides with him, and the whole day was tiring but nice. It was also good that there were not many people, and we didn't have to queue much (we still had to queue, but considering how many people live in there, it was not much).
We had some nice evenings with Sara, tried good sake (still not a big fan but well, it was definitely different), and ate quite well (although there's not as much sushi as one would thing). Finally during the last day we saw a very old friend, Lisa, one of the first persons I met when I was in the Erasmus in Sweden and that we had not seen in years. It was very nice to have the chance to talk a bit again and spend an afternoon with her.
All in all, it was quite an experience, and we really liked the trip and our stay there. Definitely not ruling out going back some other time^^.
On the next days we did several activities. One of the first ones was to visit the Hitachi Seaside Flower Park, which was not in a very colourful season but was really nice and calm, easy to move around with a rental bike, and quite beautiful nevertheless. There were some very funny-looking round plants, for example, that seemed to bounce with the wind. The area had also attractions, and in general we spent a nice day in there. The only problem was to get back, since there was no information in English and in general people didn't speak much of it, so we were not sure exactly about the time we could take the bus, and we used one that took forever to reach the station, since it went all around the place. It was much cheaper than the first one we used to get there though.
Another day we visited a bit of Yokohama, another city in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Well, Yokohama alone is huge, so we visited just a small coastal area with some shopping malls and other attractions. We used again the Shinkansen to get there, and we had the luck to reach a station where only a few types of them stopped. Because of that, you could see the ones that pass every few minutes going through the central tracks, without stopping, at full speed, and it was hypnotic how fast they went. Yokohama itself looked pretty modern, and we visited the Mitsubishi museum, which had interesting machines and games, like a flight simulator where you needed to take off and land.
We wanted to see mount Fuji, so we used another day to do this very long round trip that used a lot of different trains and transports. However we were unlucky, and all the trip that day there was an intense fog covering everything. We did use plenty of different vehicles and what little we could see looked really nice. It was also eerie sometimes, how little you could see, making this nice effect for example with cable cars, where the cables disappear and it seems you´re floating in the middle of nowhere...
The rest of the days we stayed in Tokyo per se, and visited a bit of the city, although it's such a huge place it's hard to cover much. We visited Akihabara twice, and it was quite an experience. Akihabara is the "geekiest" neighbourhood, with lots of electronic shops plus also lots of anime/manga shops, weird bars (like maid bars, or gundam bars, or such other things), old arcades, some erotic shops and just a mixture of geeky things and toys of all kinds. The place is frankly overwhelming and full of people, and there's just so many things that are curious or nice that I basically got blocked and didn't really buy anything almost,just a couple of presents for other people and a few practical things. I really enjoyed the retro video-game shops, but again, I ended up not buying anything anywhere, which is a shame but oh well...I was really just blocked from too much choice and things.
We also visited a theme park area in the centre, which was a lot of fun and Elay loved it. It was very nice to go up to rides with him, and the whole day was tiring but nice. It was also good that there were not many people, and we didn't have to queue much (we still had to queue, but considering how many people live in there, it was not much).
We had some nice evenings with Sara, tried good sake (still not a big fan but well, it was definitely different), and ate quite well (although there's not as much sushi as one would thing). Finally during the last day we saw a very old friend, Lisa, one of the first persons I met when I was in the Erasmus in Sweden and that we had not seen in years. It was very nice to have the chance to talk a bit again and spend an afternoon with her.
All in all, it was quite an experience, and we really liked the trip and our stay there. Definitely not ruling out going back some other time^^.
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