We left for Japan on Wednesday and flew from Busan to Osaka, which was only about an hour flight. We then took the Japan rail to Tokyo, which took an additional 4.5 hours but the flight was much cheaper into Osaka. Japan offers a Japan rail pass to all foreigners visiting Japan that we bought, it was not cheap but then nothing here is but well worth the investment. We can ride any JR rails or buses, well I guess not any there is train that is off limits to us JR pass holders and that is the Nozomi bullet train. Funny thing is being clueless as we had just stepped foot into Japan 30 mins prior, that was the first train we got on. You would think they would check your tickets but they did not check until we were comfy in are spacious seats. Justin and I both we thinking, wow this is really nice train! Ha! Well that did not last long, only one stop before we had to change trains! Opps! At least we got a taste of the high dollar train!
Feeling rich with all my yen. 1 yen is about $1.20. The lowest bill they offer is 1,000 which is about $12.00 and everything below is in coin form. You can see how this can get real dangerous, especially after being in Korean where 1,000 won is a little less than $1.00. So in my mind 1,000 yen is about a dollar so things seem really cheap but really they are about $12.00. Anywho, you get the idea.
Mt. Fuji on the train from Osaka to Tokyo.
Our 5 star hotel! Ha! We are staying a K's House Tokyo. It has been a lovely hostel so far and the staff are so kind and helpful. Can you believe that we are paying $84.00 a night for this dinky room with no bathroom?
Our first vending machine ramen experience. This is wild, you place your order via the vending machine and it spits you out a ticket. You then proceed inside and hand the server you ticket and they bring you your order. I am not sure why they do this, but I guess for them it is nice not to have to deal with money inside, maybe speeds up the process!
Ramen for dinner day 1! This ramen was super tasty!
The first night we wondered around the Shibuya district. We caught a live taping of some Japanese show.
Day 2- we started off the day with a visit to the world's biggest seafood market, the Tsukiji Fish Market. Every morning they hold a tuna auction but it was closed when we were there. This is a huge working market and not really set up for tourists. I was shocked at how clean this facility was considering the amount of seafood that gets cleaned here and it did not smell fishy at all!
Tuna head!
Outside the seafood market we wondered around the back alleys. They had lots of beautiful pottery. I would have loved to buy some!
Smallest car ever, so cute!
I think it is so awesome, there are tons of bikers in Tokyo.
Tokyo is said to be inspired by France. It does have a European vide going over here. Lots of French cafes and corner flower shops!
Second we visited the Imperial Palace Grounds, which is located in the center of Tokyo. The grounds contain remains of the emperor's residence. This is the Sakurada-mon Gate. As we were standing here a police car crossed the bridge followed by a Rolls Royce and a number of other fancy cars.
We read in the Lonely Planet about these maid cafes so we decided to check one out. We visited the Mai Dreamin Cafe. When you walk along the streets of Akibara, the electronics district of Tokyo you will see girls dressed up as maids, police offers and girls looking as if they are headed to a PJ party. You pay to sit down and be entertained by these girls. It was a rather funny experience.
At night we wondered around the "Red Light District". It was pretty wild, lots of love hotels that you can rent at a "resting" rate.
No comments:
Post a Comment