Japan part 7 - Hakone

For our last day, we planned a relaxing tour of Hakone.
That day, it started raining and by the time we get to Hakone it was really windy and they had to close the ship and the ropeway (cable car.) We got the Hakone free pass, this lets you ride all the transportation in Hakone, but since those two were closed we just took the bus.
This is Hakone Machi next to Lake Ashi. By the time we got here, it was raining really hard and the wind blew out Michelle's borrowed umbrella.
You can see the ship on the left. It is a replica of a pirate ship? There were school children here for field trips too, I bet they were really disappointed.
We walked to the historical Hakone check point. The checkpoint was used in the Shogun era to control people movement. The warlords live in Tokyo 1 year and then at home the next, but their wives and kids live in Tokyo every year. The Shogun basically keeped the family hostage to ensure good bahavior and this check point make sure the family stay there. I'm sure there are other uses too like control criminal movement and such.




We ran into a guy that we met at the Miyajima backpacker here. He is from Vancouver and took a picture for us here.
We only stayed out for a few hours since it was raining so hard and we knew the Onsen opens at 3pm. We got back to the Ryokan and relaxed. This ryokan is called Lalaca. The place is close to Gora station and they picked us up from the station after we called them.
nice view of the hill
We got wet and cold waiting for the bus so we went to the onsen right away when we got back. The men have the small room and the women have the big room. Then they switch after dinner so you can try all pools. This is the small pool.

The small room has an outdoor cedar tub. This tub is my favorite, it is really nice. I was the only one there and enjoyed the relaxing soak. The water is milky from the mineral.There is a fence here for some privacy. The sound of the rain is much more enjoyable when you are in a hot tub.
Here is the lobby of Lalaca. This is a small place, only 7 rooms.

See where they cut down the trees to give good views? Tree huggers need not stay here.
After the soak, we relaxed a bit and then went down to dinner at 6pm. Breakfast and dinner are included here so we don't have to go try to find a place to eat. This is Keseiki meal, they have many small courses to eat. Left to right, shrimp with seaweed salad. Sweet shrimp, octopus, tai, ika, and lox sashimi. tofu skin with small mussells. little fried fish and cold slice of pork. And the little shell fish in his shell. Yummm... everything tasted so fresh.
This place is a family place and there are a couple of people who speak English so it was easy.
Next is asparagus, mushroom, and a piece of tuna wrapped with a thin slice of pork cooked at the table clay pot style.
after 10 minutes, yumm...
grilled fish, shrimp, and bamboo shoot
hot pot

The fish was good in this hot pot, tasted light and fresh. tempura and rice, the best shrimp tempura ever, juicy and succulent. ummm...
green tea roll cake for dessert.... oh I am full!

We played Go after dinner, but we didn't really know the rule that well.
We reserved the onsen for private use at 9pm and it was great. I wish we have a hotspring at home.
I thought breakfast was going to be a continental breakfast, but it is another elaborate meal. great!
Fresh grilled fish.
morning view, say goodbye to Hakone. 8)



That's the end of our Japan trip. It was a great trip, we had a blast with minimal problems. Japan is a great place to travel, it is a lot more expensive than other Asian countries, but comparable to US and Europe so it's ok.
bye for now

Japan part 6 - Shinjuku

Back to Tokyo! This time we are staying at Toyoko Inn near Shinjuku station.
We dropped our bags off and then went to Harajuku to window shop and see some fashion.
Michelle took us on a architecture tours and we saw some interesting buildings, but most pictures didn't capture it well. Anyway, here is the Prada building, pretty neat.


This is a side street in Harajuku, it looks like the main street cater to working people and this side street sells cheapers stuffs for students. The place was crawling with students and younger people. We got banana chocolate crepe, yummm...
Here is our room at Toyoko Inn, this is a salary man hotel where business people stay. It's pretty good, free internet! This hotel is actually in Kabuki cho, the tokyo red light district. They only want Japanese customers though so nobody bothered us. Michelle said this is like a pink light district it looked pretty tame.

For dinner, we found Otoya, the place Ayako recommended. Michelle got oyster tofu soup, good...
I ordered fish. This is pretty good, but it was difficult to eat with chopsticks. The bones are tiny.
Shinjuku is busy all the time, this is what we imagined Tokyo to be like. This place is busting with people walking every which way.


The next day we went to the West side of Shinjuku to see the business district and the skyline.
This is the Tokyo Mode Gakuen building, it is a vertical university. Tokyo Mode Gakuen (Fashion vocational school), HAL Tokyo (Special Technology & Design College), and Shuto Ikō (Medical College).
The Tokyo metropilitan building, this is where the government people works. They have an observatory on the 42nd floor of both tower.

Here is the view from the first tower. The Mode building is suppose to be a cocoon. The view from the 2nd tower, Shinjuku park. That day was sunny and hot, but the sky was not clear so we couldn't see Mt. Fuji.

After that we just wondered around and tried to find a Toy store so I can buy some Gundam models. Eventually we found the big one, but it took us forever to find it and we got out at almost 10pm. We went to an Izakaya (japanese pub) that Ayako recommended, but the food wasn't that great. We didn't even take pictures. Ayako probably remembered the days when she was young and had fun with friends there, I bet if she tried again she wouldn't like the food that much.
Almost done with our trip, only one day left.

Japan part 5 - back to Kyoto

We made it back to Kyoto with no problem. This time, we are staying near Kyoto station to be a bit more central. This is the Kyoto tower.


Michelle really loves Kyoto station.

We are staying at the Matsubaya ryokan for two nights. We got a 3 tatami matts room, it is tiny, but good enough for 2 nights. We have our own toilet, but the shower is shared.
After a little rest in our little room, we went to Fushimi Inari shrine. This shrine has over 4000 tori gates lining the path to the top. This shrine has foxes instead of fu dogs guarding the place.
We got there around 5pm and Michelle thought it was a bit spooky once it got a bit darker.
The shrine. You're suppose to ring the bell, clap your hands and then pray for the winning lotto ticket.
more gates, we didn't go all the way to the top because I wanted to take it easy on our rest day. We really didn't schedule a rest day on this trip and we were pretty tired out by now. So we took it easy that day and this is the only sight we went to.
Back to Kyoto station for dinner. On the 10th floor, there are 7 ramen stores to choose from and we got pork soup ramen. I really liked this one, the soup was thick and flavorful, very good. Michelle liked the light broth ramen in Tokyo better though.
The next morning we went to the monthly flea market at Kitano Tenmangu shrine. There are a bunch of people selling used kimono, obi (sash) and the outer kimono covers for 1000Y a piece, cheap. Also many stalls selling used goods such as kitchen wares, antiques, tea stuffs, and more. We spend 3 hours here and had a blast. Michelle got a kimono outer cover, what is it called? And she got the orange scarf there for a total of 2000Y. Joe got a little iron teapot for 2000Y and one of those tiny clay Chinese teapot for 500Y.

We had taiyaki (fish shaped snack) and takoyaki (octopus balls) for breakfast.
We ended up spending about 3 hours at the flea markets, there are so many stalls there. There are actually 2 monthly flea market and this is the smaller one so the big one must have many more people.
Lunch setto at Iimura an LP recommended place. There are tonkatsu, fried fish cake, miso, pickled cukes, cucumber and tuna salad, rice and tea for 650Y. Great price and just the right amount of food. It was easy to order, just sit down and say setto. Everybody was getting the samething.

We took a rest after lunch and then headed to Gion that evening, the geisha district. We started off at the shrine where merchants prayed for good business.

Green tea icecream at a snack shop. There are snack shops everywhere in Japan.
Here is the old quarters of Gion. Cool old wooden houses.
Yay, Geisha hunting success! I think she is actually a Miko, a geisha apprentice. We were at Gion corner when Michelle spotted the Miko and I ran over to take her picture.


She could really scoot in those high wooden shoes.

grilled mochi wrapped in seaweed. umm, this is one snack that we didn't like too much.

This is Ponticho, a small pedestrian street lined with restaurants. The restaurants dining rooms are right next to the river so the food here is quite expensive. We weren't too hungry so we strolled around and then stopped by Mos berger before heading back.