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Japan trip

avril - mai 2024
Une aventure de 13 jours par Danny En savoir plus
  • 14empreintes
  • 1pays
  • 13jours
  • 218photos
  • 24vidéos
  • 866kilomètres
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  • VoyageurJapan trip

    Day 1

    28 avril, Japon ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Long day of travel as we left Glasgow at 14.35pm Friday. Bought some new sunglasses which had some mixed opinions but they are polarised so need them for protection. First flight was 7 hours. Experience with Emirates was great, very good service and food was better than expected, have put a photo in of the double decker plane we were on which was cool to see a flight of stairs on I watched Napolean which was alright and a a French film called anatomy of a fall ! We had a layover of just 1.5 hours in Dubai so we were a bit stressed that any delay would cause us to miss Dubai to Tokyo connection! Luckily went smooth and change was very easy! Second flight was a bit longer (9 hours) but spelt for about 2/3 hours. Was in the middle so find it hard to sleep there! Security was pretty thorough in Tokyo Hanita (2 hours outside of Tokyo centre) so took us a while to get through! One thing I’ve noticed is Japanese love queuing and everything is very orderly! Tickets were hard to get as we ended up needing to go back and buy another set as you need 2x for booking and another 2x for seat number! Arrived late on Sunday night and managed to get some cool looking blips of the suburb we are in Shinjuku! The scale of everything is crazy and can’t get over the massive buildings! We went out late last night for some food and I wanted to go to somewhere local down one of these alleys. Found a authentic Japanese place open at 11.30 which had lots of people on it so we choose there! Being the only non Japanese people there was a weird experience but good none the less. Another thing getting used to is no one at all speaking any English so had to point to different food on the menu and blindly ordered. Food was excellent but turned out after using Google translate we had eaten pig tongue, liver, cow intensities and deep fried ham and some lovely sauces and some lettuce to munch on! One of the eats I tried I had to chew and go to the toilet to spit out as was not nice at all but didn’t want to cause a scene (Tokyo restaurants are tiny and jam packed) managed to spit it out in the toilet but toilets here are from a different planet so pressed 20 buttons trying to flush it! They must have thought I was mad as sounded like a robot taking off. Got a good nights sleep in although trying to fight jet lag , got no internet so can only type on my phone when back in the hotel! Hotel is nice and they have an inbuilt 7-11 so good for supplies. Planning on going out to discover shibuya today and bus tour of Tokyo (best easy of discovering a new city according to Sinead)En savoir plus

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  • VoyageurJapan trip
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    Jour 1

    Day 2

    29 avril, Japon ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Another long day as out for 12 hours with a lot of walking (23k steps!). Left the hotel at around 10am as slept through an alarm because of jet lag. Had some nice Japanese pattiseries for breakfast although mine had crème cheese and custard mixed which was a bit weird. We then headed into Tokyo centre which is around a 30 min metro ride from our local station! We had booked the open top city bus tour and spent an hour and a half touring Tokyo. Luckily was a nice day so nice to sit out in shorts on the bus and learn some history. After we walked 30 mins or so to the famous Tsujiki fish market to see some of the stalls! As we were on our way we spotted a big queue of locals going into a ramen restaurant (usually a sign for good food) so we stopped for lunch there and had a nice bowl of hearty ramen pictured below! They make it all in front of you as you sit around the kitchen on stools at a bar with all Japanese sitting in silence slurping away! Luckily they give you big apron as as it’s good manners to slurp in Japan the broth from the ramen goes everywhere! We both had a nice Japanese beer and are working through them. After we went to the market and looked over all the crazy things they were serving we walked just over 2 hours to Tokyo tower pictured below. On route Sinéad stopped by Uniqlo (one just opened in Edinburgh too) and bought some clothes. We had pre booked a tour up the tower but it was very busy still! Lift takes you up at 600 metres a minute. Amazing views from the top though which makes you realise just how big the city is (32 million people making it the biggest city on earth) those were the same views all 360 degrees round! After the tower we went back to a restaurant we had passed and had some fried pork cutlets with rice miso soup and pickles, was tasty and cheap! With 2 glasses of wine each it and food it came to £20. After we had to get 2 trains home which took about an hour and Sinead was nodding off every few mins because of our walk and jet lag combo! Now back in the hotel for an early ish night as long day again tomorrow!En savoir plus

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  • VoyageurJapan trip
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    Jour 3

    Day 3

    1 mai, Japon ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Long day again as just back after being out for 13 hours! Left at 9.30ish and had a nice breakfast at a bakery next door with egg, bacon bread and some miso soup! We then set off to see an amazing digital art show called ‘borderless’ which we had booked. It was a massive centre filled with rooms that were covered in mirrors and lights! Each room had art that moved and changed and had different scents, very cool experience.

    After we had toured each room and spent a good hour or so in there we had a browse around the local mall which was very posh and clean. The food there was amazing and had been arranged orderly and perfect. The fruit was some of the biggest juiciest non blemished fruit I’ve seen. I had the strawberries and they were amazing! Sinead got an Apple the size of a small football! Imagine Harvey Nichols on steroids with all the Japanese responsible for a section each and working like a well oiled machine. We can’t get over how well dressed everyone is here. It’s like being in a fashion shoot with all the designer clothes.

    We then walked around an hour or so to the imperial palace and the weather got nice and sunny. We walked the grounds with their weird shaped trees and I took lots of pics of the amazing nature mixed with the temple buildings and office skyscrapers. From my very brief stint in my failed sustainable urban management course I could really tell just how well the Japanese landscape architect. Everything has some sort of immaculately groomed greenery on it!

    After the palace we walked another hour to the stadium of Tokyo giants baseball game where we saw a great but very long derby game with the Tokyo giants against the Swallows! We were right up in the rafters with a great view so happy to see that! Both got hotdogs with mustard and ketchup and got a beer from the poor girls that run up and down the stairs with a keg of beer strapped to their backs! Sinead cheered on the other team and hers sadly won but it was a close game with a few home runs and lasted over 3.5 hours….

    After the game we left with 30,000 people although the Japanese were great and every single person left at the same time orderly all taking with them all of their rubbish to the bins inside before they left in a line down the stairs! We got the metro back to our zone Shinjuku and had what I think was our best meal yet. We shared some dumplings and gyoza with some kimchi, chicken and beef stir fry! I had something called a ginger highball to drink which was really refreshing. Another 20k+ steps done and now 1am with an early start Tommorow!    En savoir plus

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  • VoyageurJapan trip
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    Jour 3

    Day 4

    1 mai, Japon ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    Slight change of plan today as we had originally booked to go to Tokyo Disney Sea but unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and the rain started early and lasted all day with heavy downpours! Instead we changed our time for Disney and are going tommrow instead. Luckily the rain is only for one day and we are back to mine weather!

    As it was rainy we decided to go to a Japanese shopping outlet to get some designer clothes cheap! We took the metro early and were right in amongst the Japanese work craze! The metro was rammed and we were crammed on like sardines. I tried to capture what it was like but everyone in Japanese metro looks at the floor on silence as no one dares make eye contact and you could hear a pin drop! Not one person chats.

    We took the metro then train for 30
    Mins and both did some shopping. Normally it’s something I hate but I braved going to Levi’s store and got chatting with a young Japanese worker there who had studied a year in Ireland. He told me about their promotion and I ended buying 3 pairs of Levi’s jeans (light blue, navy and black jeans) all for a combined 13,000 yen which is just £70! got a nice shirt from banana republic cheap too and without tax due to the passport! Sinéad got a great Michael Kors bag 75% off! After a long day of shoping we had coffee and food in the mall and headed back as we were a bit wet from getting caught in the rain! Luckily I’m Japan get package your paper bags with plastic covers!

    More rain and we dropped our bags off at the hotel then set out to go to the famous pokemon cafe in Tokyo centre! (Japan created pokemon) unfortunately when we arrived we found out you needed to book in advance and the next 30 days were sold out! However there was a queue for cancellations so we waited in that and we’re lucky to be told we had sometime drop out so come back in an hour! We came back and both had a Gengar (a ghost Pokémon) themed smoothie and enjoyed the pokemon cafe! Was a big nuts but cool too relive some of my childhood playing Pokémon!

    After the cafe we tried to get into a few places (still need to have some sushi and Sinéad wants udon noodles) everything in Tokyo was packed so we were forced to go to a burger place ! Was decent burger and I love the drink I keep ordering (ginger highball ) it’s basically ginger ale and whiskey with lime! Sinead says it’s a copy Jameson ginger ale lime! But delicious! Sinead found a small metal thing on her burger so they have us the drinks on the house!

    After the burger and getting caught in more rain we went to an underground sherry bar in Shinjuku! I went for Japanese whiskey mixed with Pedro Ximenez and bitters! It had a huge Diamond piece ice cube which they carved up with knifes and was delicious! Up very early tomorrow so an early night (12.30am has become early night for us!)    En savoir plus

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  • VoyageurJapan trip
    Jour 5

    Day 5

    3 mai, Japon ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Day 5 started with an early rise! Up at 6.15am as we had to get into Disneyland early as we had heard the queues were crazy! We had a mad rush across Tokyo metro to get to our train on time! Tokyo metro is like a whole city underground, in the morning it’s jam packed and you have to weave in and out of people coming from every direction!

    When we got to our stop (45 mins away) we had to get the Disney Monorail! We had tickets to the sea world rather than the main park as didn’t want to deal with the queues! Despite this there was already thousands of people queuing before it opened at 9am so we queued for an hour or so (luckily in the sun) to get in! Thank god we went today and not yesterday!

    Each ride took about 45-hour of queuing which I was told was not bad to my amazement! The feet are in absolute bits today after 4 days straight of 20k steps and standing on my feet all day! Each section of the park had a different rollercoaster theme and country theme! We went to Italy, USA, morroco which I’ve included above! Also the Japanese are great for not inflating prices at tourist spots! Lunch was about £3/4 which would be £50 in the UK!

    We left after getting tired at 4pm! Train back to Tokyo central and then headed across to Shibiyu to see the famous crossing and go to the sky bar we had booked! We nipped into pick up our JR rail pass before so (we’d be travelling on bullet trains next week) Crossing was amazing with people coming from 8 different ways! We tried it ourselves. After this we went up to the skybar to see the view, it involved another queue so the feet were done at this point. More great views from the top and then search for dinner.

    We settled on a Japanese place and had some Korean noodles and a funny frittata like thing! There’s no English on the menus and no body speaks a word so it’s just pot luck half the time! Was delicious though, and got some Japanese beer with it. Metro stop back and it was an early night. Off to Kyoto in the morning via bullet train.    En savoir plus

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  • VoyageurJapan trip
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    Jour 5

    Day 6

    3 mai, Japon ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    Late rise as check in time wasnt until 11am. We got up at 9 went for breakfast packed and then ordered a taxi (as had 2 huge suitcases and didn’t fancy busy metro) to the main station of Tokyo! We got our bullet train at 12.33 and ate some amazing supermarket sushi and a bento box! Eating in public is frowned upon in Japan but a tradition to eat in the bullet train.

    We managed to catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji on the way down although it was covered mostly by a cloud! Speed of the train was crazy and we got to see more of rural Japan on the journey down south! We arrived in Kyoto at 3.15 and instantly it feels more chilled than manic Tokyo! I heard before E that Kyoto had better food and was more laidback than Tokyo and it hasn’t dossaponted so far! We are staying with Hori who is a Japanese guy and has a traditional Japanese home which I’ve shown. The walls are all paper and the doors slide open. We are sleeping on the floor so far from luxury but a good experience and the shower is excellent.

    When we arrived we had to put on slippers and exchanged rules through sign language. After we dumped the bags off we ventured to the famous Nishiki market which is 1 minutes from the flat! (Great location). The food there is crazy and it goes on for miles! Everything is fresh and vibrant, there’s loads of octupus , prawns, Waugu, beef, matcha etc! We had some nice pork gyoza and some octopus balls for just £5. Also had a shot of saki too wash it down.

    After the market we deceive to get the metro to the amazing shrine that Kyoto is known for called Inari. It was great to see and we rushed to get the golden hour sunshine but just missed it! Behind it we could see some steps so decided to venture up only to see it was a 1 hour hike up 1000 steps! We arrived at the top sweaty and tired but worth it for the amazing view over Kyoto.

    We waddled down from the top and then walked back into Kyoto for some food. Kyoto is very trendy and lots of young people and trendy bars and restaurants. Unlike Tokyo peole seem to speak in English here so not so alien. We ventured into a whiskey bar and ordered a high ball (whiskey mixed with a soft drink) unfortunately the whiskey we got was white horse which turns out to be a scotch rather than a Japanese whiskey!

    After our drink we ventured into a random restaurant near the flat and had some garlic chilli pork with some rice and a Tsing Tao to wash it down. I’m getting the hang of chop sticks now finally and quite like them now. We went to the supermarket to get some supplies and now make in Horis home with an early start tommrow!    En savoir plus

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  • VoyageurJapan trip
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    Jour 7

    Day 7

    5 mai, Japon ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    Another great day. Got up at 8.30 and headed straight into the centre of Kyoto in search for some brekafast! Managed to find a nice place and had some avacado eggs and bacon. After breakfast we headed to the metro to Kyoto central and then used our JR pass to get to Nara park (2.5 hours south of Kyoto).

    Was a scorcher of a day here and 30 degrees so perfect day for it. Nara was mobbed and we went to get food for the wild deers to feed them! If you bow they copy you and Sinéad had luck with getting them to do so but I sadly couldn’t! We then decided to hike up up mount Wakakusa which had a lot of very steep step sections and took about an hour and a half in the hot sun! We arrived to the top sweaty but with great views of Nara!

    We then trekked down (killer on the knees) and headed to the amazing Toda-ji temple! We paid £3 to enter and was amazing to see. Japan biggest golden Buddha was inside. After we toured the temple we grabbed a smoothie and a donut as a snack. After another 45 min walk on the sun to the station we decided to head to Nijo castle (near Kyoto). Was a max rush to make it before 5 (when it shut) and turns out they don’t let peole in after 4 so we had to just take photos outside!

    By this time (5pm) we were starving so got some great sweet and sour chicken with rice and a coffee each for just £11 all in! We then we walked back to the flat, showered and headed needed to local Catholic Church as Sinéad wanted to go to mass. It was a surreal experience in a modern church but the mass format was exact same as Scotland! Peace be with you was everyone bowing to each other. On the way back we did some shopping for souvenirs in the amazing market here in Kyoto!

    After mass we went for dinner at this charcoal grill place I’d wanted to go to. We went in to find it fully booked with a table not available until 10pm so we went and tried out a small bite to eat in KFC (Sinéad wanted to try japans version) and had some more highballs and a beer at a random whiskey bar. We came back at 10 and had what I think was our best meal. We sat at a square bar with the chefs all in the middle cooking fresh from a big charcoal grill. We got grilled squid, wagyu beef, chicken thighs and fries all done on the grill and flambéed.

    We finished dinner at just after 11 and went to do some karaoke (a Japanese tradition) we found a small place with thankfully private rooms and booked one out for 30 mins (£6) and attempted to sing some cranberries, Elvis, Eminem, Dolly Parton and Tinnie Tempah before we were kicked out by getting a call to the room saying our time was up! Another 26k steps and tired legs but busy day tomorrow again!    En savoir plus

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    Jour 7

    Day 8

    5 mai, Japon ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Day 8 was spent in Kyoto city. We got up at 9am and wandered towards the imperial palace with the aim of finding somewhere for breakfast on route. Another hot day so we wanted to get a lot done before the heat came on strong. Eventually after trying a few options we found this little cafe down a random side street and had a nice bacon and egg crepe each with a coffee! Place was so full we had to queue outside for 15 mins in the sun! (Lots of people queue outside the best places to eat in Japan do not abnormal).

    After breakfast we toured the imperial palace which was free. Very impressive and nice Japanese gardens which were as you can expect immaculately maintained. There was a golden retriever meet up going on and Sinead went nuts for when they all posed for a photo. We noticed since we arrived we hadn’t seen one bit of litter or graffiti and everything seems groomed! One of the issues is there are no bins anywhere so you end up holding onto rubbish for half a day. We found most bins are located inside supermarkets on the back section.

    After we routed the palace we walked an hour back into the centre to Nintendo centre (Nintendo also Japanese). The place was mobbed with overpriced toys and Nintendo stuff but we did get a photo on the rooftop with Mario. Was also weird to see a whole floor for British stuff the Japanese were going nuts for. There was fresh sausages rolls fish and chips and royal family memorabilia with British music blaring!

    After Nintendo we wondered into the market again because was so good yesterday and goes on for miles. Today we had some octopus on a stick and had some nice sushi with salmon and I tried sea urchin for the first time (not a huge fan). I decided to splash out (1200 yen so about £8) and get some Wagyu on a stick and we shared some gyoza. We also stopped off and got some amazing matcha ice team which was so ascetically pleasing n on how they served it. Mine looked like a tennis ball it was so perfectly spherical which sums up Japan. they’re nuts for matcha here and there was 9 matcha flavours to choose from.

    We walked around Kyoto some more after food and went to another 2 shrines to see some amazing temples. Main part of Kyoto was packed but the side streets were quieter. We worked out we’d done over 160k steps in the last 5 days. My legs are gone and feet throbbing most nights so started to soak in hot water which has helped. Need better footwear as no idea how the Camino is possible being on your feet all day!

    Dinner we stopped at one of these self service BBQ places and got an assortment of meat and fish with some veg. Wasn’t as good as last night though but decent nonetheless! After we stopped by and had a beer at a craft beer place (plum beer which was decent) and stopped off to buy a can of Sapporo (beer) to share on our balcony before bed!    En savoir plus

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    Jour 9

    Day 9

    7 mai, Japon ⋅ 🌧 19 °C

    Day 9 we had to leave our traditional place in Kyoto and get the JR line through to Osaka. We stopped off at the same breakfast place we had been to a few days ago and had the avocado bacon and egg again as was good and cheap!

    Metro to Kyoto central and then our first delay of the holiday if you can believe if. The train was 25 minutes late and in Japan that a big thing. Flashing red and blaring on the intercom every 2 minutes apologies and reasons why with updated expected arrival times. Weather has gone cloudy and temperatures dropped a bit so nice to get out the drizzle.

    When we arrived in Osaka we went to book tickets back to Tokyo for Friday (JR pass just doesn’t cover the return leg) and also pick up some tickets we reserved for Hiroshima. We then decided to walk 35 mins across Osaka to our hotel. Osaka is much bigger than Kyoto with wider streets and seemed quieter than Kyoto ( maybe due to Japan’s golden week finishing).

    After we checked in we went for lunch at a random ramen place and ordered from some screens. Should have known better as was empty and food was not good and slimy but it was 4pm and we were desperate! Then we had our best coffee and fruit and nut brownie in Japan at a small cafe I found overlooking the river. After I accidentally broke off the hand towel rack from the wall (bathrooms here are tiny) we made a swift exit.

    Checked out some nice Japanese rose gardens near the river and a local shrine with some bonzai trees. Wondered to the main market street of Osaka. We stumbled into a traditional place where downstairs was full so the guy led us upstairs where we had to take our shoes off and sit on the floor. We had an Asahi each and they kindly brought us some meat on skewers and other nibbles! Japanese hospitality is good. We both can’t sit on the floor for longs and my legs seized up after not too long!

    We then found another bar in the market street and had some more ginger ale highballs before deciding to go into a packed restaurant for dinner. We sat at the bar in a very noisy and bustling place and had a selection of sushi with traditional dishes and washed down with more highballs. Back by 10 as up early tomorrow.    En savoir plus

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    Jour 9

    Day 10

    7 mai, Japon ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Another early start as up at 6.15am to catch a 8am train we had booked to Hiroshima. Took the metro to Shin Osaka and got on the train from there after picking up some breakfast. 2.5 hour long train and we arrived. Weather much better in Hiroshima as it was in Osaka (rain forecast there) so good day to go!

    We decided to walk from Hiroshima station to there Memorial site , took about an hour to get there after we stopped in a few shops on route. We toured the atomic bomb site which is still perfectly intact. The atomic bomb went off exactly 600 meters above the building so was preserved unlike everything around it. We listened to a Japanese survivor talk about it outside the site for a bit and explain why Japan had attacked pearl harbour.

    We then walked over to the museum and paid to go through the Hiroshima exhibition, very harrowing stuff as you get to see the full scale of destruction the atomic bomb caused . Interesting to see it from the japanese perspective as opposed to the American, I can see why they banned Oppenheimer. The city Hiroshima itself was worth visiting and a mix of old and new!

    After we went for lunch in a local place and had some Okonmiami (from Hiroshima but may have murdered the spelling) on a grill which was delicious washed down with an ice cold beer. We walked 45 mins back to the station and headed on to our next stop which was on route back in Kobe.

    Kobe was a cool city which is built right beside a massive forest. We got off at the station and walked all the way down the hill to the port on search of a good place to have coffee. After a lot of ahhing and ehhming and some late panic and moving we found a good coffee place (Sinead has started drinking single shots). We headed down to the park to chill for a bit and then went to the port and crossed the Kobe bridge sitting in the park for a bit.

    I had looked up a place I wanted to go to to try the famous Kobe Beef and somehow managed to squeeze in a booking for 8pm the same day. Feet sore from waking so much we headed over for 8 and had probably gf best steak in my life. It melted like butter and we got the set menu each which included 5 courses and was delicious. The chef said medium rare and served it with some satay sauce and pink salt! Sinead was a bit annoyed as hers was somehow a bit tougher than mine although I swapped with her some slices!

    We then walked back to Kobe station and got the late 10pm train back to Osaka rounding off a 13 hour day out! Another 32k steps done today so exhausted but good to see another 2 cities and have some nice food!    En savoir plus

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