When we arrived at Kyoto station, having left Tokyo 3 hours ago and still weeping within, the first thing I noticed was how familiar everything looked to me and that it felt a little bit like coming home! I recognized all the station building, the bus terminal, the big crossing in front of the station. It was so nice to feel like being in a familiar place again.
The second thing I noticed was how quiet it was! There were fewer people, they were not rushing like crazy, the whole atmosphere in Kyoto is so mor relaxed than in Tokyo. Compared to Tokyo Kyoto is a quiet beauty. Well, except for the weekends at the Golden Pavillon or Kyomizudera etc.
I miss Shibuya Crossing and the Starbucks!
Here is the Shibuya Crossing version in Kyoto:
Our guest house "Chita" is a little bit of a disappointment. Fabian and I allowed us the luxury of booking a room for two people. It is so stressful to come back to the hostel after walking around the whole day and being exhausted, and not having a possibility to relax in a quiet place. If you stay in a dorm room with 6 other people, the travel can get really exhausting. But here in Chita the walls are so thin, that it feels like you were living with the other people in one room! You hear EVERYTHING.
Something else that bothers me about this hostel is that it only has one shower for the whole hostel! There are 15 pairs of shoes in the entrance so we can guess how many people probably will want to shower! I am sitting here, surfing on the internet for already an hour, waiting for the shower to be vacant again. I feel like a lion behind some bush waiting to jump out and catch its prey.
The most interesting thing about this hostel is its Japanese style of the guest rooms. The rooms are laid out with tatami mats. The beds are futon which you spread out on the floor. And we got a Yukata! It is something like a Japanese pyjama for home.
Our room in the guest house
Our beds - still need to be made
What is this?
It comes with this piece of cloth
It is my yukata! It is the Japanese style of homewear.
Oh no, everything comes to an end. Our vacation in Tokyo is over and I am really sad to leave. If you had one last day in Toyko left, what would you do?
Fabian and I decided to do our favorite things, having a last relaxed day. Can you guess what we did? ^^
Of course! ^^
After cleaning our friend's apartment for a few hours and shopping in H&M again, we went to our favorite relaxing place. It is the fourth time that we go to Shibuya Starbucks, but we just love this so much! ^^
And then we went shopping in Shibuya near Harajuku station. We had to check out the store, which sells Uniqlo shoes and has everything on sale. It is packed in there (especially because Sunday is Shopping Day in Japan - not like boring Germany, where you cannot do anything on Sundays), but I fought my way through and bought some nice boots ^^ Yosh!
Sometimes I wonder what day today is. When you do not have a university schedule or any other obligations, one is indifferent to the weekdays. But when I saw this I immediately knew what day today is. It is Freakday: Sunday. This is the day of the week you should go to Shibuya and Yoyogi Park. Teenagers can put on their second identities and meet up with their groups to live their fantasies.
So Fabian and I had a very relaxed day, doing our favorite things, slowly saying goodbye to Tokyo. I fell in love with Tokyo, although there are many things that get on my nerves. I am especially tired of the masses of people! Tokyo has too many people! You cannot walk straight, you have to constantly concentrate to avoid people. People are rushing all the time or standing in the way. Here in Tokyo is the first time in Japan, that I encounter unmotivated or even unfriendly service people. In Oita or the other Japanese cities that I travelled to I never experienced any shop assistants who were not very polite and smiled. But here there are some people that are on the friendliness-level of Germany even! I guess this is what such a huge city with many tourists brings with it. But I did not see as many foreigners here in Tokyo as I had expected. Staff people here speak English very well, so this is where you can see that Tokyo is used to tourists. But still, when walking around this city, you encounter less Western people than expected.
Fabian and I have been alone in Tokyo since Friday evening, because Miriam had left for skiing with some friends. But we will meet her again to go to Nara and Hiroshima together. Also Miriam has booked her hostel in Kyoto, from where we will use our Railpass and travel to Osaka and Nara. So we save the nerve racking moving of our baggage from one hostel to another.
As Nagoya was a grab into the toilet (German English for Griff ins Klo) we are really afraid that Osaka, Nara, or Hiroshima could also be so boring. It would be a disaster and not a nice finale of our holidays. Actually we had originally planned to go to Kobe today. But as our Nagoya experience has made us wary, we did thorough research about activities/sights in Kobe in order to estimate its fun factor. But when we read that even the Lonely Planet (our bible) says that it is not a must-see, we refrained from undetaking the risk of travelling there and reliving a trauma. So in about an hour Fabian and I will go on journey to Kyoto to our hostel. Haha, this is my third time in Kyoto. Seems to be a gravity point of my stay in Japan. And tomorrow we will go to Osaka. Drückt uns die Daumen! Wish us luck!
Thank God, today was much better than yesterday! Fabian and I went to the Tama Region, which still belongs to Tokyo. We wanted to explore Tokyo nature, so we decided to go to Takao Mountain, which is only 50 minutes away by train. We had the choice between Takao Mountain and Mikage Mountain. We chose Takaosan because the train ride is 20 minutes shorter and because there was supposed to be an easy trail, which we could hike in 3 hours. Sounded like a perfect exercise for one relaxed day ^^
When we woke up, we were surprised by a cloudy sky. Since our arrival in Tokyo the weather had always been sunny. But we decided to go because the weather forecast said that the sky would clear up. We hoped so. In the meantime we travelled to Subway in Shibuya. Can you imagine our hunger for a good sandwich, when we undertook a 30 minutes journey just to get a Subway? (Japanese versions of sandwiches usually taste like air. I never managed to find a good sandwich in Oita.)
I know, I am such a tourist, running to Subway all the time. But it was a perfect start into the day: eating a yummy sandwich outside in the sunshine.
And we were lucky: the sun really came through when we arrived at the train station Takaosanguchi! We were really happy when we started the hike. It was paved, and seemed easy to walk. We were reminded of our excursion on Yang Ming Mountain in Taipei, where we had a wonderful day surrounded by nature. It was a very good change from busy Tokyo city life to a quiet relaxing walk in nature. It was what I had needed! We could breathe fresh air, get some easy exercise, let the sun shine on our faces and enjoy the greenery around. Now and then we also got a pretty nice view on the mountains from high above.
There were many souvenir shops and small restaurants along the hike, but well, it was still pure nature in comparison to Tokyo life. And I think Japanese just do not feel well without souvenirs shops, vending machines, food when they travel, even when it is hiking.
The nice hike today really made me happy, because yesterday had been so depressing.
Takao is cute little village.
Trail 1 is the easiest one. It is paved and only 3,8 km long. The average hiking duration is 3 hours and 15 minutes.
Stairs! I had a déjà-vu ^^ Hello Yang Ming Mountain!
Uphill
Arriving at first base
This is what Fabian saw
The statues have red hats on
Mount Takao is famous for its wildlife - birds, insects, plants. Here a man feeds a bird.
Even in the jungle Japanese would set up vending machines.
They are everywhere! I wonder why, in every street in Japan you find vending machines, which sell beverages.
View from Takaosan
Alongside the 3,8-km-trail there were about 3800 of these shops selling food, souvenirs, beverages, hiking poles (in case yours broke on the way ^^), etc. Here is a shop selling mochi on a stick.
These were our rewards on the way - nice views
A glowing plant
I wonder why there is an octopus sculpture
On the way to shrines and temples. Takaosan is a mountain of worhip.
The first gate
Scent sticks
Statue of a God at a Shinto shrine with long nose
Trees holding hands
Nice view on the way back. The setting sun was not so extremely bright anymore.
The way back was much faster because we went downhill. But our knees needed a break in between!
My overall impression of Mount Takao is that it is a very touristically exploited site. Trail 1 is a very walkable trail. I enjoyed hiking in nature and it was a welcomed change from the busy Tokyo city buzz, but if you consider other spots to hike, this is too spoiled by souvenir shops and paved ways, which make everything sometimes look like park rather than a mountain. But still, I had a very nice day there ^^
For dinner, we decided to try one of the million Korean restaurants near our apartment. We had Kimchi Nabe - yummy. But the Koreans seem to eat differently than Japanese. Japanese usually only eat a pot of Nabe, which they share. Everybody has a little bowl in front of him and helps himself from the big pot in the middle. But the Koreans also have more dishes on the table, for example a Korean pizza (Chijimi, do not know the right spelling) or cold noodle salad, which they also share.
A cozy Korean place. The streets around our apartment in Tokyo is full of these restaurants!
Cross Shibuya Crossing with me!
Sitting in Starbucks and watching Shibuya Crossing is relaxing. Like I said, it is like watching a tank with fish. And how fitting: my tea is called ZEN. ^^
Watching Shibuya Crossing at night from Starbucks:
Today we went to Nagoya. It was so boring. It was so boring that I would have rather stayed in my student dorm back in Oita.
Nagoya is the fourth largest city in Japan, how come it is so boring? When you look around in the subway you notice that the people are older, uglier, and smellier than in Tokyo. The highlight of Nagoya is the Castle.
I was so bored today that the mental pain even started to translate into physical pain. I started to feel exhausted, got a headache and felt uneasy.
We bought a Japan Rail Pass. We paid about 250 Euros and we can use as many trains as we want within one week. Today the first day of our ticket started and we could use the subway (from the JR company) for free and we could use a shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya. It only takes 2h.
Japan's fastest train - shinkansen
When we waited for our shinkansen it was funny to see that suddenly cleaning women in pink uniforms lined up at the track, waiting to get on the train and to clean it.
The customers get off the train and the cleaning women stand at the side of the exit and bow.
For a German this a very strange sight.
I have been looking forward to use the shinkansen, the Japanese high speed train. Wikipedia says that the highest speed at a test ride was over 443 km/h.
It was unspectacular. It was like riding any other train.
I do not know what I had expected. A time travel maybe?
Nagoya Castle - the highlight from today
At the foot of the tower deers were running around. Definitely highlighting the highlight!
But apart from the castle there is not really anything exciting to see or do in Nagoya. We were really depressed, when we were running around, going to the supposed sights, which the information center had given us, because the sights were nothing exciting.
It seems as if Nagasaki tried to enforce sights from any minor detail. We were even lured into a warehouse (at Nagoya castle), a supposed sight, where we saw nothing but a long corridor, on the left side a construction site. Great. See for yourself:
Nagoya is a very poor city if this is a sight.
Something that cheered me up and relieved me from my pain a little bit. Some crazy people in costumes running around at Nagoya castle. I think they are performers and perform a play at this castle.
There we are. Three Germans and two crazy Japanese.
If you see this sign, go the other direction.
One pretty moment of the day. At a crossing in Nagoya near Sakae station.
I wonder what the shopowner thought when he named his shop. Seriously, I wonder which Japanese words sounds like "Puff".
Hm, is this due to sexual harassment in Nagoya? As there are only old people there I canot imagine the problem to be that serious.
Fabian and I ate Shio Ramen for lunch. We had been running around Nagoya to find a nice eating place, then we had been running around the huge station in order to find a konbini or an eating place. So we were pretty hungry and lacking energy when we finally sat down and could eat.
After our Shio-Ramen, which we ate in a nice shop in the station, we decided to go back earlier than planned. Already at 3 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. But before leaving we wanted to go some more sightseeing, which was recommended by the information map. There were 4 interesting buildings, which were supposed to be near the station. We wanted to extend some time in Nagoya, because we wanted the long shinkansen ride to be worth it. Haha, we had just stepped outside the station,immediately saw the first building, then directly next to it, the other, then the other two. We tool pictures, click-cklick-cklick - and after 5 seconds also this sightseeing was done. Great. Here are the pictures: (I was not motivated enough to raise my hand and take a picture of the fourth building, sorry)
In the evening we walked around Shinjuku station and checked out some stores. Here in Tokyo we often see a department store called OIOI. When I go back to Germany, nothing will look appealing to me anymore, because in Japanese department stores the products are much more interesting and cute than in let's say Kaufhof.
Here is a video of Shinjuku station. Here you can see how many people run around there, always in a hurry:
And I also want to show you something, which I call in German "Augenkrebs-Laden" (eye cancer shop), because it hurts my eyes to go there. It is loud, the colours are bright, it is chaotic,... I don't know why Japanese like this. I always get a headache when I am in there for more than 3 minutes.
Another day just passed by. And again it showed that Tokyo has so many facets. Today we saw the futuristic Tokyo and the beach.
In the morning we went to the town district Roppongi. But there was not much to see, I do not even bother to upload any picture. Bof.
But then we went to Odaiba island. It is an artificially created island. It is a different Tokyo that we saw there. It was not crazy, loud, busy, old-fashioned, or beautiful. It was new, structured, just futuristic. The building complexes are new and many huge shopping malls offer a variety of products. The Rainbow Bridge connects central Tokyo with the island. The ride on the train alone, which is completely automatically driven (!), was an event. Looking out of the window you can see high buildings, bridges, roads flying by, taking you to another world. As if you witnessed a time travel from the window.
And this is where we landed
Fabian was again succesful at doing Japanese national sport - he managed to get Puh-San out of a crane machine in "Palette Town" (a wide spread shopping complex)
The futuristic building of a TV station
Nice skyline by the water
Miriam and Fabian relaxing in the sun
Walking along the shore suddenly the ground changed from concrete to this
Tokyo by the water:
Miriam and I with the Rainbow Bridge in the background
Rainbow Bridge - also very beautiful at night
And then suddenly there was sand under my feet. Tokyo Beach on Christmas Eve! The sun was shining the whole day, there was no cloud in the sky. It was actually warm enough to take off our coats and enjoy the sun.
Here is a 360 degree view of the beach (Fabian is little bit shy and successfully hid from the camera):
A nice day ends. And we were a little bit tired when we took the subway back home.
Do not underestimate the time it takes you to get from one town district to another! It can take hours, because you have to calculate the transfers between different subways and the ways it takes to walk from one platform to another!
When we went back home to our apartment we turned on some Christmas music, and had our German tradition of "Bescherung", exchanging gifts ^^ We thought that we would be a little bit sad, spending Christmas in a foreign country, so far away from our home and families. But as you can see Tokyo was a good means to distract our thoughts, so I was able to handle my Christmas-homesickness. And in Japan, you do not really get into Christmas mood that much, because Christmas does not have the same meaning to Japanese as for Germans. Here it is more of a commercial act and a day to spend with your girlfriend/boyfriend rather than a family day. And tomorrow everything is over anyways. And something else that I noticed: Japanese do not wait to open their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Anything given as a present in November or December is considered a Christmas gift, but is opened immediately!
