Last Updated on April 1, 2023 by PowersToTravel
When we travel, each night I download our photos to our tiny laptop. We select the best of the day and create a photo collage, and email it off to family and friends, and post it on Facebook – kind of like a newfangled postcard.
This means that I have an entire folder of our trip in a nutshell with pictures and text. All that is missing is the sounds and smells – and I often keep a log of those in addition! So, our gift to you is our 21-day Japan adventure and itinerary, in a nutshell, complete with the text we sent home, describing our days.
Twenty-one days was perhaps a few too many, but as I planned the trip I just kept adding days, and in retrospect I can’t think of a single day I would have trimmed.
We arrived on October 1. The date of this trip is significant in that I learned that many parts of Japan are actually very hot and humid in the summer, and that the summer extends until the end of September. So I planned our arrival for October. As you’ll see on Day 3, it was still scorchingly hot – so hot that we ditched our planned afternoon activities in favor of a rest in the hotel’s A/C.
- Day 1 – Osaka arrival
- Day 2 – Osaka – Temples, Tsutenkaku Tower, Dotombori, Abeno Harukas
- Day 3 – Osaka – Castle and Dotombori at night
- Day 4 – Nara daytrip
- Day 5 – Himeji, to Kyoto
- Day 6 – Kyoto – Arashiyama
- Day 7 – Kyoto – Temples, Pontocho Street, Nikishi Market
- Day 8 – Kyoto – Mt Kurama, Kinkaku-ji Temple, Nijo Castle
- Day 9 – Kyoto – Fushimi Inari Temple, Sanjusangendo Temple, Kizomizu-dera
- Day 10 – Train to Takayama
- Day 11 – Takayama Autumn Festival
- Day 12 – Shirakawa-go daytrip
- Day 13 – Train to Misawa via Tokyo
- Day 14 – Hagabis Typhoon in Hachinohe
- Day 15 – Aomori – Sannai-Maruyama Jomon Culture Center, Takayama Inari Shrine in Tsugaru
- Day 16 – Aomori – Nebuta Museum, Showa Great Buddha
- Day 17 – Train to Tokyo, Senso-ji Temple
- Day 18 – Tokyo – Shibuya and Meiji Temple
- Day 19 – Tokyo – The Sumida River, Shinjuku and the Robot Restaurant
- Day 20 – Tokyo – Asakusa
- Day 21 – Tokyo – Imperial Gardens and Odaiba
- Day 22 – Tokyo – Hop-on-hop-off, fly home
Day 1 – Arrival in Osaka International Airport from Cairns Australia
We did not create a photo-collage that day as I tend to keep the camera holstered while in airports! Our full itinerary for our vacation began with three weeks in Australia, which is why we arrived in Osaka. I was so pleased to find a low-cost flight from Cairns, Queensland, in the north, to Osaka.
At the Osaka airport we purchased the Osaka Amazing Pass, which was a really good deal, converted our Japan Rail Vouchers to passes, converted some cash to yen all in short order.
Our hotel is the Hotel Trusty Osaka Abeno. I tended to book our hotels in Japan using a US booking engine such as Booking.com or Hotels.com since the Japanese versions weren’t always clear about what you were getting! The Hotel Trusty Osaka Abeno was located right next to the Japan Rail Station at Tennoji and accessed through underground walkways, right across the street from Abeno Harukas, the tallest building in Japan, and next door to a mall (Abeno Q’s Mall), so it was very, very convenient. The room was good and fairly large, and the bed comfortable.
Day 2 – Our first day in Osaka
Attractions: Sumiyoshi Taisha, Shitennoji Temple, Isshinji Temple, Shinsekai, Tsutenkaku Tower, Dotombori, Don Quixote Ferris Wheel, Dotombori River Cruise, Abeno Harukas
That’s pronounced “o-sa-KA”. I had to relearn the pronunciation of most Japanese place names. Emphasis is on the last syllable of most Japanese words. The key sometimes is figuring out when a Japanese word begins and ends!
From quiet nature to the bustling city, we have arrived in Osaka, Japan.
We had a very full day today: 3 temples, a brightly colorful neighborhood with a rickshaw ride, metro rides, the Dotombori neighborhood with crazy colorful signs, a river boat ride, a ride on a strangely elliptical Ferris Wheel. We finished the day off at the top of the highest building in Japan, Abeno Harukas for the night lights. Wow.
Day 3 – Osaka Castle on a very hot day
Attractions: Osaka Castle, Dotombori, Pirates of Osaka cruise
We started the day at the Osaka Castle, which is the main tourist site here in Osaka. They had a “dress up like a shogun/emperor?” and luckily we got there when there was no line. The pic just shows us in front of the green screen, but the pic we purchased and will bring home shows us in a Japanese scene.
Then we took a ride on a little historic boat around the moat, had lunch, took a very brief (aborted) trip on an un-airconditioned boat which we abandoned at the first stop due to the high heat (Aqualiner)!
It was SOOOO hot and humid – temps in the mid-90s and real-feel of like 104! So we went back to our hotel, took a long nap, and went out for dinner in the bustling neon-light district. We had a BBQ dinner in which Greg had to do all the work!
The little balls on the food-vendor’s grill looked soooo tasty – we thought they were like doughnut holes – but they turned out to be these soggy disgusting shrimpy-egg (octopus?) mushy globs – there aren’t enough pasty words to describe them! We had to throw them away and buy an ice-cream sandwich to restore our taste buds!
Then we took another boat ride on the little river, led by a large teddy-bear, and staggered home on the metro.
Discards for the day:
- Aqualiner Boat Trip – half the boat (the part we were in!) had no A/C and they wouldn’t refund
- Osaka Museum of History – inexplicably closed.
Day 4 – Day Trip to Nara
Attractions: Heijo Palace, Kohfukuji Pagoda, Tōdai-ji temple, Kasuga Taisha, Naramachi, Gango-ji Temple
We took a day trip to the town (really a small city) of Nara to see several historic temples, and the Nara Park filled with deer.
One of the temples, Todai-ji, seemed to be some sort of major historic school field-trip requirement. There must have been a thousand school children there, in their little uniforms and caps, led by their teachers waving flags! They were even getting their class pictures taken with the temple in the background.
If it had been just adult tourists it would have been an overwhelming and unhappy experience, however the little school kids were so cute and so excited!
Another temple, Kasuga Taisha, was set at the end of a long inclined path through the woods (rather tiring walk in the heat). Luckily the little kids didn’t do that temple, but the deer were there in full force. We spent 200 yen (about $2) so Greg could feed them deer crackers.
The pictures of the temples didn’t come out that well because it was the first gray day of our entire trip. Luckily it didn’t rain.
We finally made it back to Osaka around dinner time, and our feet are just throbbing. Greg quickly felt better because he found some Dr. Pepper in a nearby store. Click here for more Dr. Pepper details.
We had been wondering where all the tourists are… we found them today, and expect to meet them tomorrow in Kyoto!
Discards for the day:
- Nara Museum – we were just too pooped.
Day 5 – Train to Himeji, then on to Kyoto
Attractions: Himeji Castle
The weather finally broke today – that is, it was broken – it rained. It did cool down nicely into the 70’s but was spitting rain for quite a while. We barely got wet, but our pictures sure are gray, and we cancelled a trip up a “ropeway” into the mountains for a view. Oh, well. We accomplished our first 10-minute Japan Rail transfer… what a mad rush but we made it. So we left Osaka on our “Hello Kitty” train, and went to Himeji to see Himeji Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site and supposedly absolutely beautiful when the skies are blue.
Then, flush with our success with the trains, we arrived at Himeji and took a bus to the castle. Problem is, we got on the wrong bus, and while almost every bus stops at the castle, this one went non-stop about 30 minutes out of town to the University. We’d pressed the “next stop” button and couldn’t figure out why the bus kept going and going… Finally when it reached the end of the line, we purposely lingered on the bus. I showed the bus driver my map, pointed to the castle and said, “Wrong bus!” He laughed and laughed. I’m sure he now has a good story to tell his family tonight. He escorted us to another bus and told that bus driver (in Japanese) to let us off at the castle. This bus stopped at many bus stops, all announced in Japanese only. Then when it turned the corner near the castle, this English recording announced “Himeji Castle!” They only charged us for what it would have cost to go to castle the right way!
At the castle, we had to climb the hillside a bit, then floor after floor, up very narrow wooden staircases, with no shoes. Up and Up, in dark rooms until the top where we got a gray view. Then Down and Down. My eight-year-old bowling-injury knee is not speaking nicely to me right now.
We had an interesting lunch. Greg chose Yakisoba (noodles and pork) and I chose a regional variation, which was the same as Greg’s only enclosed by an omelet.
The last pic is of an interesting carriage for the emperor, sitting in the Himeji train station waiting room.
Back on the train, and we finally arrived in Kyoto, which will be our home for five nights.
We stayed at Le Studio Gojo Takakura, a small building of apartments in the Gojo area, chosen specifically for the washing machine and kitchen it offered, as well as its size. The facilities of the apartment were great, but the views were non-existent, which made it somewhat claustrophobic feeling. It was conveniently located near the Gojo metro station, but there weren’t many restaurants nearby, which made eating difficult when staying there five nights! (Strangely when I just went to booking.com right now, a month after the trip, it said that they are no longer taking bookings on that site.)
I really can’t recommend staying in the Gojo area as it just wasn’t very convenient to either the Kyoto Station area, or the tourist area near the Nishiki Market and Pontocho Street; it was stuck in the middle.
Discards for the day:
- Shoshazan Ropeway in Himeji (too much fog)
Day 6 – Arashiyama
Attractions: Monkey Park Iwatayama, Togetsukyo Bridge, Tenryu-ji, Bamboo groves
When we looked at the weather forecast last night I did a last-minute scramble because it was not supposed to be nice – but then we woke up to blue skies and did another scramble back to the original itinerary.
We took a 30-min train ride to Arashiyama today – one of the top tourist locations near Kyoto. It’s tucked below the mountains, and in fact we climbed one to visit the wild macaque monkeys. They aren’t beggars, but you can go into a house, buy monkey food and feed them from within a screened-in porch. This time we chose not to buy animal food. But we got some good pics of the monkeys and of the city below. The climb up the hill was very strenuous. My knee was bothering me yesterday, but totally cleared up in time for the climb today.
The monkey mountain was good for one other thing – Greg found Dr. Pepper in a vending machine there! He also decided to try Green Tea Ice Cream since it seems to be so popular. It was terrible, just like what it sounds like – ice cream texture but herb tea flavor.
There were so many people wearing kimonos in Arashiyama that we wondered if it was a holiday today or special day?
Then we went to a temple with beautiful gardens, and then through a bamboo grove.
We saw Kyoto Tower from street level looking for a restaurant tonight.
We walked so much, our feet are now killing us!
Discards for the day:
- Saga Scenic Railway – we failed to buy our tickets ahead of time and they were all sold out
- Adashino Nenbutuji – feet too tired
- Otagi Nenbutsuji Temple – too tired!
Day 7 – Kyoto Temples, Pontocho Street and Nishiki Market
Attractions: Ginkakuji, Philosopher’s Path, Honen-in, Eikando Zenrinji, Nanzenji, Pontocho Street, Nishiki Market
After about 7 miles of walking today, I am busy re-scheduling tomorrow to avoid walking! Greg found us a nice mountain to go up on a funicular so we shouldn’t have to climb it!
Today we visited several temples in the foothills of the mountains in a neighborhood just above the city. Each was different, but our favorite was Eikando Zenrinji. It has beautiful gardens, inter-linked buildings, some with colorful painting on the beams, and amazing gold Buddha interiors which they wouldn’t let us take photos of. Actually we’ve been very disappointed by the fact that none of the temples permit interior pictures, so all the exteriors seem to blend into one, and I don’t think I’ll be able to remember one interior from the next without pictures.
We staggered down from the hillsides back into downtown, searching for a restaurant, and failed. Finally we ended up at McDonald’s. Oh, well.
We headed then to Pontocho Alley, a very picturesque alley of old fashioned storefronts and restaurants (where were they when we needed one??), and then to Nishiki Market. That’s where we found little stores selling all sorts of strange things. The little octopi in the picture was in one of those stores. Ymmm. (no we didn’t buy!) But Greg did try the black vanilla ice cream, which actually contains but does not taste like charcoal. It tasted like vanilla ice cream.
We ended the day at a pizzeria up the road from us, and the pizza was really, really good. Here’s a link to Goichi Pizza.
Day 8 – Up Mt. Kurama, then more temples and castle
Attractions: Mt. Kurama, Kinkaku-ji, Nijo-jo Castle
Today was supposed to be an easy day – Greg promised me a funicular to the top of a mountain. Yes, there was a funicular but only part-way up. We walked up a lot of stairs to get to the main temple, but then decided not to carry on to the top. It was a beautiful wooded area called Mt. Kurama.
Then we headed back into the city to Kinkaku-ji Temple (the Golden Pavilion). They say you have to see it on a sunny day, and today was sunny and it was gorgeous.
Then we went to Nijo Castle. I was disappointed once again because they allow no pictures inside. And then you read placards which say these murals are only reproductions. We felt let down. Oh, well.
Our feet were so tired. We decided to take a bus to a mall and eat at an American steak house. The food was adequate but the great thing was the fork and knife that came with the steak (instead of chop sticks which are killing the tendonitis in my wrists.) Greg was excited by the free refills of his soda. (Sadly no Diet Dr. Pepper there.)
Last but certainly not least, we took the same bus home that we took down to the mall. Unfortunately it didn’t go back to the same place, figure that! Luckily we realized quickly that it had turned off the right road; we got off at the next stop, had to walk back (oh our feet!), wander around, find some Baskin Robbins ice cream to make up for it, and finally took a subway home.
Day 9 – More Kyoto Temples, and shopping
Attractions: Fushimi Inari Temple, Sanjusangendo Temple, Kizomizu-dera
Today, Wendy promised Greg an easier day, but that was also inaccurate (Greg calls it a Lie.)
We started by taking a subway, then a train, to the Fushimi Inari Torii Gates. That is a unique experience – orange gate after orange gate going on seemingly into infinity up a mountain (notice we’re still climbing steps!) We only went up part way, then took an exit path down and bought a magnet.
Next we took a bus to the Sanjusangendo Temple. That also was unique – a huge hall filled with the most bizarre looking Buddha figures ever. Once again, they don’t let you take photos (how frustrating is this!). There was a poster outside which we photographed which shows the interior.
Greg also tried to sneak a picture, and somehow his flash went off, and I waited for us to be taken away, but no one got mad at us. At least his picture of the one huge Buddha with about a million arms came out well.
Then we took another bus to Kizomidu-dera temple, walking up the hilly street. The streets here were lined with souvenir shops and restaurants so it was entertaining. Also entertaining were the mobs of young Japanese people in their kimonos. Apparently they rent the kimono for the day, then stroll around historic places taking selfies of themselves. There was also a group of older Japanese people doing the same thing, getting their picture taken. Greg hopped up with the official photographer and got a great picture of them.
Tonight we went to a nearby (no bus needed!) “Japanese Fusion” restaurant called “Sugarhill Kyoto“. My southern fried chicken, salad and potato salad were very good. They called it “Japanese Spicy Chicken” but I thought it was just excellent fried chicken. Very tiny restaurant, I definitely recommend making reservations.
Tomorrow truly is a rest day – we take a four hour train ride to the city of Takayama. There’s a festival there the next day, but tomorrow should be a day of rest…
Day 10 – Train ride to Takayama
Attractions: Onsen
Today, it rained. Not as long as predicted but it was a rather gray and rainy day. It was as good a day as any to do so, since we were taking a four hour train ride from Kyoto to Takayama. We were on a “wide view” train, so named due to the big panoramic windows, but our views were only of rain on the windows, and gray clouds on the mountains. The good news is that on Friday we’ll take that same trip again, heading south, and the weather is predicted to be good, so we’ll have a chance to see it again.
We are in Takayama for their autumn festival, one of the three most important/famous/colorful of Japan. Luckily the rain is already gone, and beautiful sunshine is predicted for tomorrow, with temps in the high 60s.
We are in a very mountainous area, filled with onsens, which are Japanese hot springs / baths. Our hotel has spas on the 7th floor. We decided to try out one of the private spas there. You go into what appears to be a bathroom and lock the door behind you. Then you go outside to the private little cubicle with fake bamboo walls. The cubicle contains a wonderful hot tub, for two.
One of the pics is of the Kyoto train station which is quite impressive.
Our hotel is the Wat Hotel and Spa Hida Takayama, several blocks south of the train station. It was a bit of a walk to get there, and we probably would have liked a hotel closer to the station or the historic area, but it offered a double bed which had space on either side (a really rare find in Japanese hotels!) and onsen baths. The room was quite large, the bed comfortable and we enjoyed the private onsen twice! It also is located right next to a city bus stop; if you knew that ahead of time you could take the bus from the train station! You can also take the bus from the hotel around to the historic district, which we did also did twice.
Discards for the day:
- Sanmachi-suji District – same area as the festival would be in, I wanted to check it out when it wasn’t mobbed, but it was raining.
Day 11 – Takayama Autumn Festival
Today was definitely a day to remember – the Takayama Autumn Festival. They take the Shintu diety out of his temple and parade him around town before returning him to the temple for another year. They also have eleven huge floats, called “takai”, which they display during the day and parade around at night, decked out with hundreds of lanterns. They have a traditional marionette show which we were able to take pictures of, and Greg, a video.
That’s it in a nutshell, but it was an amazing sight to see. Just hearing the sounds of the music and smelling the street food was memorable.
Day 12 – Day Trip to Shirakawa-go
Today we took a self-guided day trip out from Takayama to a little village called Shirakawa-go. Shirakawa-go is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its “gassho” A-frame traditional houses. The house style is unchanged for centuries in the Japanese Alps. This tiny village is just full of them (and eventually full of tourists). Luckily we took the first bus there in the morning and there weren’t a lot of people around for quite a while.
The thatch on the house appeared to be about three feet thick. Many of the houses are still private houses, while others are guest houses and souvenir shops.
Discards for the day:
- Hida no Sato – a great collection of thatch-roof houses in a pleasant park area about 2km west of Takayama Station, need to take a bus. We were just too tired.
Day 13 – Train travel to Misawa
Where’s Hagibis? Hagibis is hitting Tokyo. What is Hagibis? Hagibis is the super typhoon which is hitting Tokyo, Japan. It’s supposed to be the worst in 60 years.
We’re still in Japan, but our itinerary is so well constructed that today we traveled by train all the way from Takayama to Misawa at the top of the main island, about 400 miles from Tokyo. Today was the last day the trains would be running, and we made it! We had to travel on three trains and make two connections – one of them in Tokyo. Tokyo Central Station was a mad-house – luckily we had a two hour layover there.
We traveled on Shinkansen trains – the high speed ones – and it was awesome.
We are now at Vanessa and Jesse’s house at Misawa Air Force Base (Vanessa is Greg’s daughter.) It’s raining, but the heavy winds aren’t supposed to start here until later.
Anyway, we are happy, dry and warm with the entire family.
Strange – no pics yet of the family, but several of Leo and Ralphie, the dogs!
Day 14 – Hagibis Day at Hachinohe
Attractions: Hachinohe Port Museum
Up here in Misawa we are still waiting for the typhoon to hit.
So Jesse and Vanessa took us to the Hachinohe Port Museum, and the mall.
The Port Museum was a fabulous museum. They were holding some sort of fall fair in the lower level – they had several free crafts to make, a couple of dancers and stuff for sale. Vanessa just barreled ahead with her Google translator – “Is it free?” Yes, it was, so we all sat down to paint our little wooden horses. The horses are specific to this area, a 700-year old traditional craft done by farmers to sell to “tourists” even back then.
After a couple more craft opportunities we visited the rest of the museum and it featured so many arts and crafts, also products from the city.
Last, we wandered the mall, visiting a local department store where Greg checked out the local Halloween costumes.
Discards for the day:
- Lake Towada, Hakkoda Ropeway – we had to stay home for the typhoon and certainly didn’t want to be out and about in the mountains in a typhoon!
Day 15 – Aomori
Attractions: Sannai-Maruyama Jomon Culture Center, Takayama Inari Shrine in Tsugaru
As expected, the day after a hurricane (or typhoon in this case) the weather was beautiful – a little chilly now, but bright and sunny. Jesse drove us west from Misawa to Aomori where we visited the Sannai-Maruyama Jomon culture center where we saw the excavation of and re-creation of a 5000 BC village.
Then we headed almost all the way to the Japan Sea on the west coast of the island to an Inare Toreii Gates shrine, similar to the one we visited in Kyoto.
Oops the power is almost out and I forgot the PC power adapter on our little getaway to Aomori. I’ll try to get the pics posted!
Our hotel in Aomori was sadly the Hotel / Spa Aomori Center Hotel. The hotel was located in the city center, and did have a spa / onsen. However the beds were hard as rocks and the rooms tiny. I won’t even give you the link to the hotel.
Day 16 – Aomori
Attractions: Nebuta Museum, Showa Great Buddha
The morning started rather slowly since none of us slept well on the ‘hard-as-nails’ beds at the hotel in Aomori! We ate breakfast at the Japanese-style hotel’s buffet, mixing in with people in pajamas who were eating mid-spa.
Vanessa and Jesse took us to the Nebuta Museum, which is a huge building full of last year’s festival floats. The floats were amazing: huge and colorful. Then we went to the Showa Buddha – also a huge Buddha in the countryside. We stopped for gelato, and antiques, then finally arrived home.
But not home for long, because we went out for dinner to a tiny, tiny steakhouse set in someone’s house, called Steakhouse Yoshino. There was one table for ten people, with several grills set in the middle; that’s it. Luckily there was room for the five of us. They said they could only serve us if we chose one particular meal – and so we did: Shrimp and Australian beef. It was the best beef we have had in Japan! It was finished off with a ice-cream roll toasted on the grill, with a birthday candle for Vanessa!
Day 17 – To Tokyo and Asakusa
Attractions: Senso-ji Temple
Today, we sadly left Vanessa and family, and headed south to Tokyo. We took a bullet train (same one as the one we took to go north), except this time we were aware that we were actually on the fastest bullet train in Japan! Wow, we hadn’t known that before.
We arrived in northern Tokyo and very happily found a Hard Rock Café in the train station! Ah, lunch. We found that our hotel is right in the middle of a fun pedestrian area near the Senso-ji temple and also near a neon-light district. We have views of both the temple and the Tokyo Skytree.
After wandering around all over looking for a restaurant, we ended up at something called Royal Host, which seemed to be similar to a Denny’s! I very strangely chose French Onion Soup and Pancakes. (If you know me, you’ll know that those are two of my favorite foods, but usually not in the same meal!)
We can hear the murmur of crowds below our hotel window. Luckily the window is noise-reducing. When we open the window, what a racket! But the bed is soft, the room is large and the A/C works just fine.
Our hotel is “B:Conte Asakusa“. Strange name, I always had problems looking it up. What a location! Right in the heart of Asakusa, large apartment with kitchen. I highly recommend it.
Day 18 – Shibuya and Meiji Temple
Attractions: Shibuya, Hachiko Statue, Moyai Statue, Meiji Shrine, Kappabashi (Plastic food street)
Well, we finally got affected by the typhoon – Mt. Fuji was closed!
That is, Hakone has been really wiped out by the typhoon. The train line has been badly damaged, the lake water levels have risen above the docks and parking lot levels, a bridge has been washed out, and the ropeways (cable cars) have been closed. In addition there is some volcanic activity nearby, so other ropeways are closed. Hakone is the major sightseeing hub for taking pictures of Mt. Fuji.
And we were there! Granted, it was a gray day (supposed to be partly cloudy??) We took the train all the way from Tokyo, after having checked the outage status on the web, hmmm, which web site were we looking at, because our page only said one ropeway was out and a bus had been substituted?
So we arrived in Odawara and went to get our tickets and bam! The agent said “It’s all closed. No news when it will re-open.”
So we got back on our Shinkansen train, arrived back in Tokyo and headed to Shibuja instead.
Shibuya is the home of the famous Scramble Crossing, the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world. We saw the Moia Statue at the station there, the dog statue (sat for a long time waiting for his master who had died during his commute), and walked up to Meiji Shrine.
Meiji Shrine has the tallest Torii Gate in Japan, made of cypress. Greg is standing beneath it to give you the perspective.
Finally we headed home, via the Kappabashi street, the Plastic Food Street, where they sell Plastic Food and kitchen supplies to restaurants.
Discards for the day:
- Mt. Fuji – we originally planned on doing the Mt Fuji Day trip at Hakone, but everything was inaccessible due to the typhoon
Day 19 – The Sumida River, Shinjuku and the Robot Restaurant
Attractions: Sumida River Boat Ride, Hamarikyu Garden, Shinjuku, Samurai Museum, Robot Restaurant
We finally saw what Tokyo is famous for – lights and action!
Today we started the day rather quietly with a boat ride down the Sumida River to Hamarikyu Gardens. The gardens were actually preserved hunting grounds from the Edo Period and they had restored the Shogun’s hunting lodge so it was really kind of neat, the juxtaposition of the old architecture with the new.
Then we took a subway over to Shinjuku, to the Samurai Museum – really neat tour and they let us try on Samurai costumes and take pictures for free.
The major event of the day was our visit to the Robot Restaurant. No words can describe the colorful, crazy, loud show. It was fantastic – a once in a lifetime experience, especially since the “theater” seats are only three deep – the show is right in your face! I’ll post a video in the next posting.
Then we made it home and finished off our colorful evening with a stroll to brightly lit Senso-Ji temple.
Wow. Such a late night for us 🙂 This was really a high point of our Japan trip!
Day 20 – Asakusa and Nap Time
Attractions: Senso-ji temple
It continued to be overcast and a little rainy today in Tokyo. We wandered out to the market here – part is covered and part uncovered – to shop for souvenirs.
Suddenly we heard drums and saw a bunch of people dashing down an alley. Seeing anyone run in Tokyo is a major event, so we went too and found a local festival. A huge dragon was weaving its way down the street. We thought we had missed it but Greg ran up another street and we found the dragon had popped into the local kindergarten. The children were all dressed up for the parade. Hanging on a fence, perched up several feet from the parade we took picture after picture as the parade passed right by us to the Senso-Ji Temple.
Children, old folks and everyone in between were all dressed up in black and white costumes. A cart filled with geisha women, a contingent of drum and gong players, and most importantly, the weaving dragon, filled the street.
The afternoon was nap-time (ah! the first on this vacation!)
We tried tempura for dinner (good but the meal was not filling enough so we had to finish it off with ice cream!), and took a walk along the waterfront.
It was a wonderful slow day, but it is supposed to rain tomorrow morning, so it looks like we will have two slow days in a row.
Discards for the day:
- Nikko Day Trip – we originally were going to spend the entire day in Nikko, but the typhoon had disrupted the rail service there. (It still wasn’t running a week after the typhoon.)
Day 21 – Imperial Gardens and Odaiba
Attractions: Imperial Gardens, Odaiba (Statue of Liberty, Ferris Wheel, Sumida River Boat trip)
We looked at each other last night and I said “Oh, my, I’m married to a man in his sixties.” Greg followed that up with “And I’m married to a woman in her fifties! We’re not spring chickens! We’re ‘free-range chickens’!
Well, today was our last full day in Japan. We’re flying home tomorrow. Tokyo celebrated by giving us rain this morning, then fog in the afternoon. Luckily it was actually warm.
So we started off late, to the Imperial Gardens, which looked kind of so-so under the gray skies. We had a delicious lunch at this place we just happened to wander by, called “Scent House” (in the Nippon Life Insurance Marunouchi Garden Tower near Otemachi Station.)
Then we took three subways out to Odaiba, the Seaside City. Odaiba is a man-made island opposite Tokyo filled with malls, and chain hotels, a convention center, and a HUGE Ferris Wheel – a good a place as any to be in bad weather.
One of the pictures will startle you — yes, it is the Statue of Liberty. It was a gift from France to Japan, I don’t know when. It was really kind of neat to see. Then we went on the ferris wheel. Greg was a little green at being so high. We wandered the mall, and waited for our boat trip home, which we had scheduled for night-time so we could see the city lights. Luckily just at sunset the skies cleared a little.
Our boat was a strange ant-like thing that had revolving colored lights like a disco. I guess this is Tokyo!
Discards of the day:
- Ueno sights (Hanazona Inari Shrine, Gojoten Shrine, Ueno Toshogu Shrine, Tokyo National Museum) – our feet were just too tired and we were simply templed-out.
Day 22 – Hop-on-hop-off Bus and Plane Home
Attractions: Hop-on-hop-off bus, Sky Tower
We’re home! We don’t quite know what day it is, or whether it is nighttime or daytime, but the trip home was easier on us than the trip to Australia across the Pacific. (I wasn’t quite sure whether I would sleep after binge-watching the 2016 season of “The X-Files” on the plane! But I did sleep some once we got home at 10pm ET.)
Here are some final pictures from Tokyo. The sun finally came out for a few hours on Sunday, and we took a Hop-on-hop-off bus ride just to be out and about, waiting for our late afternoon flight. We also bumped into a local street fair – that was neat – but we couldn’t tell what it was about – maybe healthy living? It didn’t have any good eats.
Flight home Haneda to Toronto, Toronto to Boston.
