• Leanne Douras
  • Leanne Douras

Tokyo Adventure

Ein 12-Tage Abenteuer von Leanne Weiterlesen
  • Cruising along the river

    16. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    After my short walk through the Ueno shopping area, I hopped the train over to Asakusa. I wanted to see the sculpture on Asahi building again but there was something different this time. Hmm what was different? Oh yeah, Skytree! I got a nice couple of shots then I saw the ticket office for the River sightseeing cruise so I thought why not? The cruise took about 40 minutes, passing under 13 bridges along the way.Weiterlesen

  • Tokyo's best tower (IMO)

    16. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    After my river cruise I got off at Hinode Pier, just a short walk from Tokyo Tower. I passed the Hamamatsucho World Trade Centre, where I was when I was at Seaside Top so I knew I was getting close. Skytree is a fantastic looking tower but I will always have a special place for Tokyo Tower. This was actually the first time I've been up close to it so I was really happy. Leading up to the tower there is Zojoji Temple where I saw a cute row of statues wearing red hats and holding little windmills. They looked fab when a gust of wind would start blowing the hundreds of windmills. I got a bit snap happy when I reached Tokyo Tower. I think Agasei yesterday taking lots of photos has influenced me with the selfie stick haha. Right now I'm on the Yamanote line train back to the hotel as I will be meeting my friend Agasei shortly. So far a great dayWeiterlesen

  • Shibuya sushi

    16. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Agasei took me to a place where the sushi is ordered electronically and delivered to your seats on a sort of train system. It was really great fun choosing the dishes using the touchscreen. It's so easy for people who are not so good at ordering in Japanese or if you don't want to be bothered by waitresses or waiters. There was even a roulette game when you ordered certain dishes. Agasei won it twice and got two 10% discount vouchers and I won a 5% discount. Lucky us but also unlucky because we couldn't use them on that day. Oh well. The frozen beers we got were interesting. The heads were iced. I don't know how that would go down in a Wetherspoons like.Weiterlesen

  • A long walk for a cocktail

    16. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Thanks to the crap iPhone map feature compared to my far superior Google maps (yes, I am an android snob) we ended up walking around in circles looking for some gay bars, or rather lesbian bars because Agasei didn't wanna go to mixed ones. We managed to find a tiny one called Diamond Holic. It was a proper saloon bar effect when I walked in. Everyone turned round and looked at us. I kind of expected it, not because I'm a foreigner (although that probably didn't help matters) but I have read that these tiny lesbian bars have a lot of regulars and don't really have time for newbies. Anyway it was late because of the satnav so we only really had time for 1 drink before the trains finished so we left. We did look for others in the way with no luck. I'll stick to The Lisbon back home then yeah?Weiterlesen

  • Buffet at the Prince Hotel

    17. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    I had never been to a lunch buffet with such quality food. I'm used to just the warm up stuff back home. Agasei told me it's usually very hard to get a reservation for this place but because Aiko knew a man who worked there we were able to eat 😊
    We started off with crabs legs. I was just lazy letting Aiko extract all the meat for me. I tried quite a few Japanese foods that I can remember the names of but all of them were tasty. Pinky and Aiko took a liking to my selfie stick and took over with photo after photo. It was all good fun chatting and eating. I was stuffed!
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  • Coffee stop 2

    17. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    After our lunch we were heading to Roppongi Hills to see a cafe decorated with art by a famous artist. Murikama (I may be wrong with the spelling). On the way we were too busy talking and laughing that we nearly missed our stop at Ebisu. We all let out a shriek and jumped off the train just before the doors closed. I'm sure the people on the train thought we were nutters. Anyway we got to Roppongi Hills and it turned out the artist cfe was an event that had already ended so we decided to head to another coffee shop that Aiko liked and took come cute pictures along the way.Weiterlesen

  • More food?

    17. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    After our coffee and pancakes Agasei had chosen a place for us to have a drink. It was supposed to be happy hour but they said they don't do happy hour on Sundays, also it was dead in there so we went to another place a couple of floors below. The girls ordered a few dishes for us to share and we ordered drinks. I had a cocktail called a fuzzy navel. Nice peach flavour. It was so good that the 3 of them were very chatty and we were all having a good laugh. I then had to make my way back to the hotel and prepare for my Mount Fuji trip. It was so sad saying goodbye to everyone at the station. Pinky was nearly crying. I was so grateful they came to meet me.Weiterlesen

  • En Route to Fuji

    18. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    So I had agreed to meet Sayaka at Tokyo Station near the bus depot at 7am ready for our business at 7:20. My intention was to get up at 5 so I wouldn't have to rush but my alarm didn't go off. I wasn't up too late but I was rushed with the train arriving at Tokyo at 6:55. I messaged ahead to tell Sayaka what time my train was arriving but I made a typo and told her 7:55. Oops! Anyway we were both on time and got the right bus so it was all good. ON TO FUJI!Weiterlesen

  • 8th station hut

    18. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We finally got up to our accommodation for the night. Sayaka had a headache and I was worried she was getting altitude sickness. We sat down for dinner, Katsu curry which was delicious after hiking all day, then we bedded down for the night. We were bunking with a lot of noisy people but we managed sleep on and off.Weiterlesen

  • Summit of Mount Fuji

    19. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    We set off for the summit at 2AM with our headlamps. Thankfully Sayaka's headache had gone. Seems like a good meal and sleep is what she needed. Myself, on the other hand, didn't feel too great for the first half of the summit trail. I was getting a bit breathless but that passed after an hour. We reached the 9th station and saw the shadow of Fuji cast upon the clouds. It started to get crowded on the climb up to the summit. We were worried we were going to miss the sunrise. We were informed that it would take 20 minutes to reach the summit from where we were because of the queues climbing so we took the decision to sit where we were for a perfect view of the sunrise. It didn't disappoint. Pictures don't do it justice at all. Once the hype for the sunrise had died down we then headed up the summit.Weiterlesen

  • Subashiri Trail

    19. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    For out descent we chose the Subashiri Trail because as Sayaka said "it's faster so that means it's easier." Well... it wasn't too bad to begin with. It was like walking down steep sand dunes. The ground shifting with each step. I was alright with that. Neither of us wanted to go down a route that had huge steps down. Sayaka made a remark about not many people were using that trail. Now we know why. It was shifting volcanic ash pretty much the whole way down. Our legs were getting heavier, we were covered in Ash and we kept having to empty our boots of volcanic rocks every so often. We kept making jokes about who picked this trail, blaming each other.
    We were alone on the trail for the most of the time, the occasional person passing us by. It felt a bit eerie on this trail with clouds passing through us set against the brown grey ash surroundings.
    We were so happy when we saw a sign for the 5th station signalling the end until Sayaka read the sign "You're don't want to hear this....we have 40 minutes more 😣😥"
    Well this 40 minutes took a lot longer than that. Although we were tired, we really enjoyed this part as it was travelling through a forest in what appeared to be a dried up stream. On our way, 2 old ladies passed us starting their ascent "Not long now" they said. Sayaka was cursing them later on because we still had ages to go. Sayaka made me laugh so much. It seemed like the more tired we got, the funnier everything was.
    We did it! After 4 hours of sliding down ash and rocks we finally reached the 5th station. The lady at the shop there was kind enough to let us use a room to change. Both proud of ourselves, we enjoyed a nice cuppa before setting off back to Tokyo.
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  • A New Face

    19. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We decided the easiest way to get back to Tokyo from the Subashiri Trail was to get a bus to Gotemba then another bus straight to Shinjuku. We got chatting to a nice Canadian lad called Adrian who had come from Osaka and climbed Fuji in a day. He was on his way to Tokyo to catch his night bus back to Osaka. The way he was originally going to choose would have meant him changing a few times so we just suggested he tag along with us.Weiterlesen

  • Late lunch with a new friend

    19. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    When we arrived at Shinjuku, Adrian told us that he had a 9 hour wait until his bus and was going to explore the city so he suggested we had a bite to eat together before we all went our separate ways. The place we went to was serving a new ramen on their menu, Thai ramen. It sounded good so we went for it. It was so spicy but good. Sayaka said Japanese foods don't really have much in the way of hot spice so it was something good for her to try. Adrian was finding it hard not to choke on the hotness. I was fine though, maybe because we do have lots of spicy foods in the UK. I'm just used to it I guess.. or I have crap taste buds. We found dead out that Adrian teaches English in Osaka but really wants to travel to France to teach home school. It all sounds great choosing where you would like to work next. Best of luck to him. We all said our goodbyes and I went back to the hotel for a much needed shower.Weiterlesen

  • Boarding the Shinkansen

    20. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    So, after my Mount Fuji climb, my thighs were so sore and my body ached that I just wanted to stay in bed. I managed to motivate myself and get up at 5 to get ready for a trip to Kyoto. Once I was at the station and saw the Shinkansen I was glad that I didn't stay in bed. It would have been a waste of a day. The train was travelling fast through the city and I thought that was a good speed until out of the city it went even faster! Kind of like when your plane is ready to take off and it has that burst of speed. I wish we had these trains back home.
    3 hours to Kyoto and such lovely views in between.
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  • Golden Pavillion

    20. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    I decided to be lazy and take a taxi from Arashiyama to Kinkaku-ji. It was actually my first time in a Japanese taxi on my own so I was a little bit worried. My fare came to just over ¥2000 for a 20 minutes ride. I paid the taxi driver with a ¥2000 note and some change and he had a very excited reaction. I had no idea why at the time but it seems like ¥2000 notes are not that common in public.
    Anyway, I had reached one of the iconic places of Kyoto, the Golden Pavillion. Because the weather was so bright, everything just looked amazing. The lush greens and the gold of the temple itself. It was a nice walk through the temple grounds too but me being as pale as I am, I was feeling the heat and the burn. I decided to take some shade with a green tea flavoured soft ice cream.
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  • Nijo Castle

    20. Juli 2016 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    I got the bus from Kinkaku-ji to Nijo Castle. It was the first time I had used a bus on this trip. I did use one on my last trip but this one was easier to navigate as it told you which stops (in Japanese) rather than a general area like the bus I used last time. It was just a case of remembering the kanji for my stop.
    I got off the bus right outside, which was great then walked right in. It seems everywhere has amazing gardens. Put that in Liverpool and it will probably get wrecked by scallys😠
    Again, I was feeling the burn so I saw as much as I could then left for my next destination.
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