My journey to the Land of the Rising Sun - Day 5

Today, our itinerary was centred around Tokyo. We left Shinjuku for Ueno Park in the morning. We were advised to be prepared for a huge turnout at the park as last weekend saw more than 250,000 people at the park. I felt sick hearing that as I am not fond of crowded areas. I get worked up and feel slightly disoriented. However, once we arrived at the entrance, I gave a huge sigh of relief. The crowd looked manageable and it wasn't like a pack of sardines crammed shoulder to shoulder. The busy streets and large crowd at Shinjuku yesterday looked intimidating compared to this.

Ueno Park is a popular spot for sakura viewing as almost the entire grounds are planted with sakura trees. However, by the time we arrived in Tokyo, the sakura season was nearing an end and the ground was scattered with light pink fallen sakura petals. The sakura flowers still intact up on the branches did not look as nice as the ones we saw in Kyoto and most of them already had fresh green leaves sprouting out. Our tour guide told us that sakura bloom for about 10 days before falling to the ground, and that you only get to see it bloom once a year. The warm weather today was a huge contrast from yesterday's miserable cold and wet weather with clear blue skies and little to no wind. In fact, today felt like the warmest day throughout the duration of my stay and I could get by just wearing a single layer.

After a leisurely stroll in Ueno Park and eating my second sakura flavoured soft serve ice cream, we stopped by at the Asakusa Temple which is connected to Nakamise Street - a very popular souvenir street for tourists. This place felt even more crowded compared to Ueno Park with the constant movement of tourists walking up and down the single street. The tiny shops on both sides of the street sold all kinds of local souvenirs and snacks. We bought some keychains, rice crackers, and some sweets made from rice flour. I saw a T-shirt with the captions "I love Tokyo" and thought of getting one for myself as a memento of my visit to Japan, but that plain white garment cost more than a discounted GAP plaid long sleeve shirt from Gotemba Premium Outlets! Absolutely prepostorous! I don't think it's even worth more than JPY1,400.

At the end of Nakamise Street is the Thunder Gate which has three large lanterns and a pair of what appears to be gigantic woven slippers. We passed under the gate to head for lunch at a nearby restaurant. As Tokyo is the largest city in Japan with the highest population, restaurants are smaller. We had our lunch in a rather cramped restaurant on the first floor. I was getting rather sick of drinking miso soup and eating tempura already and hardly touched them but the salt-grilled salmon and yellow pickles were pretty good.

After lunch, we headed to the grounds outside of the Imperial Palace where their Majesties the Emperor and the Empress reside. You couldn't really see anything except for a moat and some really high walls surrounding the palace. One interesting point to note is that one side of the grounds belongs to the public and we are free to touch the trees and tread on the grass, while another side belongs to the royalty and the general public are not allowed to step beyond the barricade. I was tempted to touch a blade of grass growing on the forbidden area but noticed the royal guards standing watch in the watch towers.

After this was my long-awaited shopping trip at Ginza - THE shopping district of Tokyo! We were given only 2 hours to shop before departing for Narita. Armed with only JPY10,000, I was reading for a shopping spree. With such a short time frame and so many things to see, I only managed to visit Matsuzakaya, Isetan, Uniqlo, Abercrombie & Fitch, Adidas and H&M. It's such a pity that almost everything seems overpriced here in Ginza except for a select few luxury labels. Needless to say, I returned to the bus with the same JPY10,000 still intact and untouched.

We left Ginza at 5.30pm and headed to Narita for dinner. From the bridge, it was a most beautiful Tokyo skyline at sunset. Tonight, dinner was at an all-you-can-eat BBQ restaurant. 2 days earlier, we pre-ordered Kobe beef to be air-flown all the way to Narita. One piece of 150g steak costs JPY10,000. To confirm its authenticity, it even came with a certificate. It was lightly pan-seared without any seasoning so that we could taste the full flavour and enjoy the texture of the meat. Kobe beef is so tender that it melts in your mouth. This is because the fat of Kobe beef has a lower melting point than other types of beef. Now I understand why my colleagues who have eaten Kobe beef say that they have been spoiled and do not fancy eating normal beef any more.

We spent our final night in Japan at the Narita Port Hotel, which is situated about 15 minutes away from Narita International Airport - our departure point. It was a busy night of packing and stuffing things into the suitcase. An interesting event occurred at about 11.52pm on that night just as I was about to shut my eyes. After getting into bed and switching off the lights, I felt my bed sway from side to side for a couple of seconds. Immediately I shot right out of bed and switched the lights on. My brother felt it too and he thought he heard the floor lamp rattling against the window, but he dismissed it as feeling dizzy from all the flying. Remembering that it's a common occurrence in this part of Japan, we went back to bed. When we got home (and with internet connection), we learnt that there was a 5.6 magnitude earthquake with epicentre about 200km off the east coast of Honshu.

My journey to the Land of the Rising Sun - Day 4

Today's post has got to be the shortest of all my posts about my holiday in Japan. After a relaxing night at the Kasugai View Hotel, we awoke to a gloomy morning in Yamanachi. Mount Fuji could only be partly seen as it was shrouded in low-lying clouds.

Today was by far the coldest day, thanks to the wind and light showers. I felt the wind pound me whenever it blew. Our first stop for the day was at the Oshino-Hakkai Village, which boasts of a set of 8 ponds filled with water from melted ice and snow from Mount Fuji. Melting snow from the slopes penetrates through porous layers of rock, which filter the water, rendering it crystal clear. The dreary weather did not make for good picture-taking opportunities today. Even the surface of the water was much too rippled by the wind to see clearly all the way to the bottom.

I experienced my first encounter with mainland Chinese tourists at a souvenir shop in Oshino-Hakkai. I wonder whether these people were ever taught such things as manners? They come in like a hurricane - loud, crude, uncouth and pushing their way through and swallowing everything in their path. I despise such lowly, pathetic creatures! Before the hordes of chinky mainlanders arrived, I was fortunate to have tried some free samples of the local snacks, one of it being some sweetened gigantic black bean. I bought a vacuum-sealed pack of sweetened beans, a bottle of wasabi salt and a marimo moss ball keychain.

After trodding around on soggy, damp ground, we returned to the bus to head to Gotemba for lunch. We were served a bento set with udon, some tempura, tamago (sweetened omelette), grilled salmon and some boiled vegetables. Everything except the rice and udon were served cold as this is how bento should really be since it is usually eaten as food on the go.

After refuelling our stomachs, it was time to do some shopping at the Gotemba Premium Outlets at the foot of Mount Fuji. There are a total of 210 outlets at Gotemba, with a good mix of luxury and mid-range brands. I paid a visit to some of my favourite brands such as Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, Emporio Armani, Adidas, Banana Republic and GAP. There is even a LEGO shop which carried up-to-date stock. It was time for some shopping spree in Japan! We were given 1.5 hours to shop at Gotemba before we had to leave for Tokyo.

We arrived in the eastern side of Shinjuku in the evening and walked through the red light district of Kabukicho which had rows of adult stores and kinky neon signs advertising all kinds of adult services. After walking through those dodgy lanes, we reached the main intersection at Shinjuku. Shinjuku is a very busy area and it was hard not to get lost in the crowd. To get some relief away from all the crowd on street level, we headed underground which was quieter.

Tonight, dinner was at a Chinese restaurant in Shinjuku and it was nothing worth shouting about. Our hotel for the night was at the Keio Plaza Hotel, Tokyo. It's a very large and busy hotel in the western side of Shinjuku. The hotel is surrounded by tall office towers and from my room window, I could see the Shinjuku Cocoon Tower with its signature criss-cross patterns. I could also see that the streets were still busy with office workers pouring into the subway stations, even at 11pm! From afar, they looked like black ants marching.

My journey to the Land of the Rising Sun - Day 3

We left Nagoya for Shizuoka prefecture on a bright, sunny morning to visit the famed Mount Fuji. It would be a long 4 hour drive so I was prepared to catch up on some sleep on the bus.

On the journey up north, we passed by Lake Hamana, which is considered to be home of the best quality unagi in Japan. The water in this lake is brackish, which is ideal for the cultivation of unagi eels.

We caught our first glimpse of Mount Fuji as our tour guide made the announcement that the mountain could be seen fom the right side of the bus. Mount Fuji looked so grand in the distance - a solitary mountain with gradual slopes in a bluish hue, capped with snow on its peak.

Our first stop at Shizuoka prefecture was the Shiraito Falls, southwest of Mount Fuji. The parking bay was a perfect place for picture-taking, with the great mountain looming in the distance. A short walk down some slopes and stairs took us to the lovely Shiraito Falls. The Shiraito Falls is unlike the great waterfalls of the Americas - thousands of gallons of water thundering over a cliff; instead it flows and trickles through fissures in the rock, looking like smooth strands of silk. The streams of water fall into a clear, blue lagoon, which then spills over some boulders surrounding the lagoon, forming a river. The water was clear enough to spot some fish darting beneath the rippled surface. The fish that inhabit this area looked like some species of tiny trout.

On our walk uphill back to the parking bay, we stopped by at some souvenir stalls selling lots of strange knick-knacks and snacks such as marimo moss balls in jars, wasabi flavoured Kit Kat, wasabi ice cream and fresh wasabi plants.

Next, we headed to Lake Kawaguchi for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake with views of Mount Fuji in the background. Mount Fuji is surrounded by 5 lakes, with Lake Kawaguchi being the most popular.

We had some pork shabu shabu, served alongside some preserved fish, pickles and tempura. The fish are indigenous to the lake so it was a great oppurtunity to sample the local cuisine. The preserved fish - however ugly it looked, actually tasted really good. It was sweet with no fishiness about it, and even the head and bones were edible (although I chose not to eat the head).

After a hearty meal, we headed straight up to Mount Fuji. We were extremely fortunate that afternoon as the Mount Fuji Fifth Station was finally opened for the season. The fifth station is the highest point accessible by vehicles and is usually the base point for hikers to ascend the peak on foot. As we drove up winding paths up the mountain, the landscape changed to one with barren trees and a white frosted ground heavy with snow.

 

The fifth station was rather crowded with tourists from all over the world. I could hear Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian and German being spoken. It was cold but bearable since there was very little wind that afternoon and the weather was fine. I chose a cleaner, less-trampled spot to play in the snow with my brother. My ears and nose felt numb from the cold after being exposed to the elements for an hour without any protection. It's a miracle they did not fall off!

After an exciting afternoon on top of Mount Fuji, we finally had to leave the mountain to make it on time for our Hokkaido taraba crab dinner at a Ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) complete with an onsen (Japanese hot spring). I was "thawing" myself on the bus on the journey down to a quaint small town of Isawa in Yamanashi. After a quick rest and some freshening up, we changed into our yukata and wooden sandals to go down to the restaurant below for dinner. Not being used to wearing such long flowing garb with wooden sandals, my left sandal went flying a good 5 feet in front of me when I took a stride!

The highlight of the dinner was crabs and it was an an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner. Apart from the crabs, the buffet also had all sorts of Japanese food such as pork curry, sushi, sahimi, and soba, just to name a few. I pigged out on Japanese pork curry and some sushi since I am allergic to crustaceans.

After dinner, it was time to take a dip in the hot spring baths. In Japan, proper onsen etiquette is that you need to be stark naked when you enter an onsen. For foreign tourists like us who are unfamiliar with local customs, fortunately the hotel provided a very clear and concise visual guide on proper behaviour at a Japanese bath.