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Japan is one of the advanced country in Eastern Asia. Kingdom of Japan is located at Northeast of Asia and it is an island nation. Japan has 4 main islands and thousands of smaller islands that goes from North of Hokkaido all the way to the South of Okinawa. Japan has been known for many of its advanced electronic brands such as Sony, Panasonic, Canon, and many others. Japan's car companies are also the most popular car brand in the world. It is fortunate that there is a direct flight from Portland to Japan, operated by Delta Airline. Thus we decided to go on a one week vacation in Japan.
The Delta flight leaves around 12:30PM from Portland and arrives at Japan Narita airport around 2:30PM in the afternoon. We were very satisfied with Delta Airline's service. We were served with Ben & Jerry ice cream! It was our first time having ice cream on the airplane.
Once we got off the plane, we first rushed to the travel agency at Narita Airport Terminal 1 to get our JR Rail Pass exchanged. JR Rail Pass is for foreigners only and it offers amazing discount to use all JR owned railways. While we were there exchanging the JR Rail Pass, we also booked the Narita Express train to Shinagawa, and then take the Shinkensen to Kyoto.
On day 1 when we arrived in Japan, we immediately took Shinkensen to Kyoto. The ride was about 2.5 hours from Shinagawa to Kyoto station, but we enjoyed the ride a lot because it has a lot of leg rooms. The only thing we forgot was to purchase bento box and enjoy the food. Once we got to Kyoto, we grabbed some bento box at Kyoto station and immediately checked in to Hotel Granvia Kyoto, which is right beside Kyoto station. There are so many people at Kyoto station and it was crazy!
On day 2, we woke up very early at 5AM and went to Arashiyama. It was quite easy to get to Arashiyama from Kyoto station by taking JR train. We got to Arashiyama at around 7AM and there was not many people there. For lunch, we went to Taisho Hanana to try its famous bream fish sashimi. After lunch, we went to Ranzan Sakuramochi for crashed ice dessert. We then took Kyoto city bus to Kinkaku-Ji to check out the famous golden temple. Afterwards, we went to the famous and oldest temple in Japan, Kiyomizu-Dera, to look around and shop around the area. At night, we got some buns and went back to hotel to enjoy dinner.
On day 3, we woke up even earlier at 4AM because we have a long day ahead of us. We first went to Fushmi Inari Taisha to check out its hundreds of Toshiis lined up together. Then we went back to Kyoto station to take Shinkensen to Himeji to visit Himeji Castle and Koko-En Garden. It is around 1 hour of train ride. After that, we took Shinkensen again to go to Shin-Osaka station and visit the famous Osaka market at Dotonbori to try its famous Takoyaki at Juhachiban Takoyaki.
On day 4, we left Kyoto and headed to Hakone. We first took Shinkensen to Odawara station, then take Hakone Tozan train to Kowakudani and checked in to Manatei Hotel. Since our room was not ready yet, we took Hakone Tozan ropeway to visit Owakudani and checked out its black hot spring egg. We then went down to visit Lake Ashi and took the pirate ship cruise to the South side of the lake to check out Hakone Shrine. At night, we had dinner at Hayakawa, which is included as part of the stay at Manatei Hotel.
On day 5, we went to Hakone Yumoto by taking Hakone Tozan train. We visited Gyokuren Shrine and made our prayers there. Then went to Yama Soba for lunch to try out its amazing cold noodle soba. Later we then went to Gore Park, which is a less popular place for tourist.
On day 6, we took Shinkensen to Tokyo station. We got to Tokyo around noon and went to Meiji Jingu. Then we went to Sakuratei to try making Okonomiyaki ourselves. After having a great lunch, we went to Nishimura Fruit & Parlour for an amazing luxurious dessert. Then we checked out Shibuya and tried the UFO machine, but unfortunately did not get anything.
On day 7, we took Shinkensen to Utsunomiya and then take the train to Nikko. At Nikko, got to try out Kimono and visited the famous temples. We also tried Gelato Rusk ice cream. In the afternoon, we went back to Tokyo and went to Sushizanmai for dinner. Its tuna sushi was the best sushi we have ever had.
On day 8, wen visited Senso-Ji and shop around Asakusa. At lunch time, we went to Ichiran Ramen. We have wanted to try it out for so long and finally had the chance to do it. In the afternoon, went to shopping at Shinjuku. At night, we went to Akibahara to play the UFO machine again and caught 3 prizes! We were very lucky that night.
On day 9 and it is the last day, we headed to Narita Airport and get ready to head back to Portland. The schedule of this Japan vacation was quite tight, but we enjoyed it a lot. We have visited a lot more places than we wanted to. After visiting Japan, we were most impressed by Japan's railway network. It is so convenient and we did not have to take bus at all. If we had the chance, we would visit Japan again and try to catch more price with the UFO machine!
Ichiran Ramen is a popular ramen franchise in Japan. It has also opened many franchise stores in other countries as well. It is known for serving amazing ramen with a single soup base and you can adjust ramen's flavor however you like.
Since it is so popular, we decided to give it a visit while we were in Japan. The Ichiran restaurant that we visited is at Asakusa. We got to the door of the restaurant around 10AM in the morning and it appeared that the restaurant is located in the basement. We were not sure whether the restaurant is open or not. We walked down stairs and pressed the button to open the automatic door and found that there were already many people in there. We were greet with a sweet smile from the server and she told us to buy food ticket from the vending machine.
The vending machine has all the menu items that Ichiran offers. All customers need to purchase the food ticket from the vending machine first and then give the food ticket to the server after filling out the form that indicates what kind of flavor that you want. We got our food ticket, and filled out the form to specify spiciness, saltiness, and noodle thickness.
The ramen was served quite quickly. We were guessing that they always had the noodle and soup ready, and just had to put them together in the bowl. The soup seems to be a pork bone flavored soup. The thickness of the noodle is about right. Not too thin and not too thick. On top of the noodle, green onions are spread on top of it, which is nice. The pork meat is good. It did not have too much fat on it. One thing that was interesting is the egg. When the egg is given to us, it was still in the shell. We needed to peel off the shell ourselves and then put it in the ramen soup.
We finished the ramen rather quickly and really enjoyed it. Before we leave, the server asked us whether we are interested to purchase the ramen and cook it ourselves at home. Apparently the restaurant also sell its ramen in the restaurant. So we could try to make Ichiran ramen in US if we purchase the ramen set.
Senso-Ji is located at Asakusa, Tokyo in Japan. It is one of the most popular tourist attraction in Tokyo if not the most popular. It attracts millions of customers everyday to visit this place. Getting to Senso-Ji is very easy. It is right outside of Asakusa train station. Simply follow the sign on the wall and you will get to Senso-Ji.
We got to Senso-Ji by 8AM in the morning and there were already huge crowd of people there. This shows how crazy this place gets. Before reaching the temple, there are many small shops along the walk way selling souvenirs and snacks. At 8AM in the morning, most shops have not opened yet and the shops only open at 9AM. Thus we decided to visit the temple first.
Senso-Ji is known with the template gate that says "thunder gate" on the lantern. Good luck taking a photo with it because there were just so many people trying to take a picture with it. It was just insane. We gave up taking a photo with it and walked right towards the main temple. The main temple is quite large and it actually felt cool in the main temple. Keep in mind that there is a sign that says no photos allowed in the main temple. We then visited the surrounding areas of Senso-Ji. There were Buddha statues and smaller temples on the side. We also saw man made waterfalls in the garden. We could also see Tokyo Sky Tree from here.
The Omamori sold here does not look that good compared to Meiji Jingu. So we do not recommend getting the ones here. Meiji Jingu has better ones with more variety.
After visiting Senso-Ji, we then went shop around in the area within Asakusa, There are many shopping streets in the surrounding area and most of them are covered with plastic ceiling. There are many tax free shops targeted for tourists such as make ups, drugs, and snacks.
In general, we are not quite sure why Senso-Ji is a must visit place. The temple itself is not very big. We basically walked in and walked out. The shopping area around it is nice, but there are many other similar areas within Tokyo. So we recommend not to spend too much time here since there isn't much things to do here.
Sushizanmai is a chain franchise Sushi restaurant in Japan, and it is perhaps the largest Sushi chain restaurant in Japan. If you watch TV in Japan, you will often see Sushizanmai's TV commercials. It is one of the most successful Sushi restaurant. All of Sushizanmai's restaurant are open 24 hours as well, so you could enjoy sushi 3AM in the morning. People may think Sushizanmai only offers cheap quality sushi, but it is not the case. Sushizanmai's sushi has high quality and the service is said to be incredible.
Since we were visiting Japan, Sushizanmai is a must try place for us. There are many Sushizanmai restaurants in Tokyo, so we went to the Sushizanmai restaurant located at Ueno since we were just there. We got there at around 5PM, just a bit before the dinner time. There were already so many people there and the restaurant was nearly full. The waiter did not speak perfect English, but we were able to communicate and order what we wanted. We ordered a Tuna set, an Eel Roll, and Salmon Sushi.
Our food was served rather quickly. When the food is ready from the kitchen or from the Sushi chef, they would yell it out. So the restaurant is considered to be noisy since there could be many people yelling at the same time.
The salmon sushi was not up to par to us. We have had better salmon sushi in North America. This may due to the fact that salmon is not popular in Japan and they may be using different type of salmon. The salmon sushi served here also has skin attached to it, so we did not like it much. The eel roll was ok, but we were used to having Unagi instead of Anago. We preferred to have Unagi, which is sea eel with less bones.
The best thing here is the tuna set. It was so amazing. Tuna set came with 2 pieces of fatty tuna sushi, 2 pieces of medium fatty tuna sushi, 2 pieces of regular tuna sushi, 3 pieces of tuna roll, 2 pieces of tuna onion sushi, and 2 pieces of seared tuna sushi. The fatty tuna sushi is so amazing. The tuna meat simply melted in our mouth without taking a bite at it. Even for the regular tuna sushi without much fat, the tuna meat still simply melts in our mouth. It was just so fresh. The seared tuna sushi was so good too. It was seared perfect with some smoky taste and with some saltiness.
Overall, we liked the place a lot. We would just go again and do the tuna set again. It was unfortunate that we did not get to try the corn tempura. It was one of the recommended dish from the restaurant. We would definitely try that next time,
Nishimura Fruit & Parlour is an amazing fruit dessert shop located in Japan. Its fruit dessert is considered to be luxurious and expensive. Although its desserts are pricy, many people especially girls still love to go there due to its amazingly made fruit dessert.
Since we were visiting Japan during the hot summer day, this dessert shop is something that we simply could not miss. There are multiple Nishimura Fruit & Parlour locations in Japan. The one we went to is located at Shibuya. The shop is right outside of the Shibuya JR train station. From the Shibuya cross walk, we could see the Nishimura Fruit & Parlour sign located at the top of the building.
The restaurant is located on the second floor. The first floor was already selling deliciously looking fruits such as apple, peach, grape, and watermelon. We noticed that the fruits do seem very pricy in Japan. One apple cost $6 US dollar even though it is big and round.
As we walked up stairs, the interior design of the restaurant is magnificent and luxurious. Everything has a golden trim. We sat down at a table right away and decided to get the seasonal limited special of grape dessert and peach dessert. The grape dessert is served with green colored grapes and sliced in different shape to be placed on top of the glass. The grape was sweet and tender. Under the grape, there were frozen yogurt and jellies to make it cooler. The peach dish had the peach sliced and placed at the top of the glass like a ball. The peach flesh is white and quite sweet. There were also frozen yogurt and jellies placed at the bottom of the glass.
Overall, Nishimura Fruits & Parlour did not disappoint and it served the best fruit dessert we have ever had. We could not forget the taste of the dessert and wish we could go back there again and try all other desserts. The only other thing is that it was pricy. With the 2 dessert we ordered, it cost around 5100 Japanese Yen. So we would say it is quite expensive, but it was definitely worth it!
Gelato & Rusk is an ice cream shop located at Nikko, Japan. The store is located close to the Shinkyo bridge in Nikko. Other than just selling Gelato ice cream, it also sells cookie biscuit rusk with many different flavors. The store itself isn't very big with limited seats. There is only a very very tiny bar table at the back of the store that can barely sit 4 people even though there are 4 stools. Most people just buy and go.
When we got there, it was around 12PM and there was no one. It was very deserted and there was only 1 person working at the store. We selected the two item special that the store is currently promoting. It costs 500 Japanese Yen and we can select 2 different Gelato ice cream flavors and a rusk to go with it. We looked around and decided to try the charcoal and coffee mocha flavor for ice cream, and sesame flavor for the rusk. We think it is a good deal and the price is cheap.
The ice cream came in a cup with a chocolate monkey stick in between. Not quite sure why the monkey has its eyes covered by its hands. The coffee mocha flavor is not special, just like a mocha flavored ice cream. The charcoal flavored ice cream is quite unique. We could not tell what it is made out of. It did look pitch black and its flavor taste like sesame ice cream to us. The rusk biscuit is very crunchy and sweet. We really liked it. We have also tried the sample of other flavor of rusk such as green tea and strawberry, the black rusk tastes the best.
The shop did not seem to have many customers. After we left the shop, the store employee stepped out onto the street and started giving out samples to attract more customers. It looked as if they got nothing better to do and need to get more customers.
Overall, the charcoal flavored ice cream is unique and the black rusk is tasty, but other than that, the other ice cream flavors are not that special.
Nikko is a small town located Northwest of Tokyo. It is a popular tourist attraction with Shinkyo bridge and famous temples. Edo Wonderland is also located by Nikko. To get to Nikko, you can take Shinkensen from Tokyo stations to Utsunomiya Station. It takes about 50 minutes. Then take Nikko Line to Nikko station and it takes about 50 minutes. The train on Nikko line leaves around every 30 minutes.
From Nikko station to Shinkyo bridge, it takes about 15 minutes of walking time up hill. Another option is to take bus directly from Nikko station to Shinkyo bridge. We recommend to walk to Shinkyo bridge since there are many interesting shops along the street.
As we walked up the street, we visited Utakata Kimono shop. This is a Kimono rental shop with a large selection of Kimono and Yukata for tourist to wear for the day. We also went in there to pick Kimono and Yukata to wear. Other than providing Kimono rental, Utakata Kimono shop also provide hair styling service for 1500 Japanese Yen. They can do a hair put up style, cute style, or traditional Japanese woman style. We also requested for professional photo shoot at Shinkyo bridge, and the photos look amazing! The photographer was very professional! Originally, we were only supposed to get 12 photos, but they really liked us and gave us like 60 photos. Communication was not much of a problem since they knew some English. We also used Google translate to communicate between English and Japanese for some complicated discussion.
After crossing the bridge, we went up the hill to visit the temples on the top of the hill. The temples here are quite amazing and were built long ago. There were also many stone lanterns places in a row on the side of the street. The only thing that we did not like was that it costs 1000 Japanese Yen to enter the temple. The temple is not even that big and we felt that 1000 Japanese Yen was a bit too much.
Overall, we enjoyed visiting Nikko. It is quite different from many other tourist place in Japan. This place is less crowded and still had quite a lot of interesting things to see. The most satisfying thing was having a chance to try out the Kimono and take some good photos with it. We really loved the photo.
Sakuratei is a restaurant located at Shibuya district of Tokyo in Japan. It is a famous restaurant known for letting its customers to make their own Okonomiyaki at the table. The restaurant offers variety of Okonomiyaki and Monjayaki. It even has the all you can eat option for a very cheap price of 1500 Japanese Yen. The interior decoration of Sakuratei is quite unique as well. It has various spray painted art works on its walls. At the outside of the restaurant, it also has both sides of the wall spray painted and there are lights at the bottom lighting up the wall at night, which is quite a spectacular view. Although making of the Okonomiyaki require a big table, the restaurant is quite large to accommodate like 40 tables.
We got to Sakuratei at around 2PM, so it has already passed its lunch busy hour. However, when we got to Sakuratei, the restaurant was still half full. The server took us to our table to sat down and we got really excited to make our own Okonomiyaki. We ordered the signature one, and another signature Okonomiyaki with noodle. We were worried that we would not be able to cook this, the server actually gave us a cooking manual that provides step by step instruction for making Okonomiyaki.
So, once we got the ingredients, we started to make the Okonomiyaki. The first step was easy, dump all the ingredients onto the hot fry pan, then make it into a circular shape that is about 2CM thick. We waited for about 6 minutes to let the shape to be firm, and then flip it to cook the other side. The flipping was the hardest part. We had to make sure the Okonomiyaki did not break into pieces. After that, break the egg and place Okonomiyaki on top of it. Then it's done! The last step is to add as much sauce as we want! With the fry noodle, there is an additional step of cooking the noodle first, then place the egg on top of it.
We liked the Okonomiyaki with noodle that provides more texture when we bite on it.
Overall, it was an amazing experience at Sakuratei to make Okonomiyaki. It was extremely fun to make it ourselves. Next time, we would be able to try all you can eat option and make as many as possible!
Meiji Jingu is one of the most popular shrine located in Tokyo and it is a must visit tourist attraction in Tokyo. Meiji Jingu is located on the West side of Tokyo. It can be reached directly by train by getting off at Yoyogi station and other train stations. From Tokyo station, it takes about 15 minutes by train to get to Meiji Jingu.
Meiji Jingu has multiple entrances. We entered from the North entrance gate. Once we entered the Meiji Jingu park, we walked for 5 minutes to get to the actual temple.
The temple is well maintained and very clean. There is 1 big tree at one corner, with a lot of prayers from people placed around it. There are 2 other trees at the adjacent corner and these 2 trees are tightly hooked to each other. It is said that prayer made under these 2 trees will get the couple to live happily ever after. All these 3 trees are very round. Not sure if they are being trimmed at regular basis or it somehow just grew like that.
Other than these 3 trees, we did not see any other trees within the temple. Outside of the temple, there is a small building that can be used to held wedding ceremonies. It is usually closed and not allow people to enter. But this is the only building with AC turned on during this hot summer day.
At each entrance of Meiji Jingu temple, there are also booths that sell Omamories, which is Japanese luck charms. There are several Mikos, who are Japanese shamans in the booths selling Omamories. Mikos usually wear white tops and red pants. They are usually seen with bows and arrows. The Omamories that are being sold at Meiji Jingu looks rather nice and have variety of colors. In our opinion, the Omamories sold at Meiji Jingu looks the best among all the temples we have visited. Thus we bought few Omamories to bring us some good luck.
As we leave Meiji Jingu, we went out from the South entrance. On the South entrance side, there were a lot of Japanese alcohol container baskets placed on the side with various symbols and drawings on them. They were stacked together and looked quite fancy. There were also Kimono rental service for woman to try out the Kimono for few hours. The Kimono rental here only has 1 style, which is red. It looks like it does not do the hair for you and you wear the Kimono on top of your cloth. Since the weather was extremely hot, not many people were trying it.
In our opinion, Meiji Jingu is a great place to visit with rich history behind it. The Omamories sold here are also amazing and beautiful. It is definitely worth it to buy Omamories to bring the luck.
Gora Park is located at Hakone Gora in Japan. To get to Gora Park, you first have to take Hakone Tozan Railway from Odawara station all the way to the last station at Gora station. From Gora station, it is an uphill walk of about 5 to 10 minutes depending on how first you walk. For some people, this may be a steep climb to get to the top of the hill, but there are buses from Gora station to take people there. In addition, for some reason the Gora Park entry is not free. The admission fee is 550 Japanese Yen. However, if you have Hakone Day Pass, you can enter Gora Park for free.
We went to Gora Park in the afternoon and not many people are there. It is a beautiful park with flowers and trees. The color of the park is actually quite vibrant. At the enter of the park, there is a water fountain in front of a big oak tree.
There are also many small cafe within the park. We found it quite strange because Gore Park already charges an admission fee. Not sure how many people actually come to the park just to go to the cafe.
The Gora Park is also divided into different sections with different flower types. There is also a rose garden there. Most roses have passed its peak blossom season, but we could still see few roses there.
There is also an insect exhibit, which we had no interest in. We did see many kids getting quite excited about what kind of insects that they will find.
We were only at the Gora Park for about 30 minutes. We felt that this park was built just to attract tourists and squeeze some more money out of the tourist. So we strongly do not recommend this place unless you somehow happen to be here, right in front of the park. There was really not much to see, and you will most likely be disappointed. It may be wiser to visit other art museums in the area.
Gyokuren Shrine is a Japanese shrine located at Hakone Yumoto. This particular shrine is famous for its waterfall coming down the cliff into the pond, and within the pond, there are stepping stones for people to walk on and get to the center of the pond. Gyokuren Shrine is about 15 minutes of walk from Hakone Yumoto train station and need to cross the bridge first in order to get here. The place may be a bit difficult to spot because it is partially hidden behind Tenseien Hotel. There are signs at the side of the hotel to indicate where Gyokuren Shrine is at.
We got to Gyokuren Shrine around 11AM in the morning. As we walked towards the waterfall, we noticed several ducks roaming around on the ground. There were also many pigeons wondering around in the area. We were guessing that these ducks and pigeons are probably being fed by the hotel employees. If you are scared of any sort of bird, this may not be the place for you to visit.
We did not see many people here. This is probably because Gyokuren Shrine is a smaller shrine and a bit out of the way for people to visit. However, the waterfall coming off the cliff bring cool breeze during the hot and humid summer day. We really needed that. The actual shrine is on top of the cliff and we had to walk all the way up. The staircases are made out of stones and are quite slipper due to the moist coming from the waterfall. The height have each steps are also quite high. Thus we recommend people to walk slowly to make sure they do not slip and fall.
When we got to the top, we made some donation and made a quick prayer. We did not linger there for a long time because there was quite a few mosquitos around.
Overall, Gyokuren Shrine is a cool place to visit if you are into waterfalls like us, or if you are into shrines. You can walk to the center of the pond by stepping on the stones, just make sure you do not slip and fall into the pond.
Yama Soba is a restaurant located at Hakone Yumoto of Japan, and it specifically serve soba based meals, but it does also serve other types of dishes. Soba is a type of all wheat Japanese noodle that can be served in soup, or as cold noodle dish. Yama Soba restaurant is not far from Hakone Yumoto train station. It is on the West side of Hakone Yumoto train station and about 2 minutes walk from the station. There are also many models displayed outside to show the type of dishes that the restaurant serves.
We got to Yama Soba around noon, and it was already quite packed. We could only find a large table to be shared with other people on the second floor. Other than the wooden table that we sat at, there were also tatami based tables that people can sit, and people have to take off their shoes. We were not feeling comfortable sitting at our table because it was so short and we could not put our knee under the table.
We ordered a Tempura Cold Soba and a Katsu Don. After about just 10 minutes, the dishes are delivered to us. The shrimp tempura is gigantic! Bigger than anything else that we have seen before. The cold soba is served in a square box and placed on top of the bamboo to drain the water. We dip the soba noodle into the tempura sauce along with green onions. The taste is very refreshing during the hot summer day. As part of tempura dish there was also a fish tempura. We could not tell what kind of fish it is, but we did not like it because it had too much bones in it and we were lazy to pick the bones.
The Katsu Don was huge as well. It was well served with lot of Katsu pieces and the egg on the top was cooked perfectly. The sauce soaked into the rice very well to add the additional taste to it.
Overall, we liked the place quite a lot. The servers at the restaurant seem to be busy all the time and rarely have the time with you. The servers can speak some very basic English, so the communication was not too difficult. To pay the bill, we bring the bill to the cashier at the first floor and they only accepted cash.
Hayakawa is a restaurant located within Manatei Hotel at Gora Hakone Japan. The restaurant is located on the third floor of the hotel and it serves breakfast and dinner for customers who lives at the hotel. The hotel nightly stay price already has the meal price included. The restaurant offers Japanese style and Western style breakfast. Dinner is always served as Japanese style.
In addition, depending on the type of room that you reserve and live in the hotel, the type of food that you get seem to vary. The breakfast time are 8AM, 8:30AM, and 9AM, The dinner time is only either 6PM or 7:30PM, since it takes longer to serve.
We stayed at Manatei Hotel for 2 nights, and thus tried both Japanese style and Western style breakfast. The restaurant will serve one of each if you stay for 2 nights. The Japanese style breakfast comes with grilled salmon, Tamago egg, pickled vegetables, miso soup, and rice. Western style breakfast comes with egg, bacon, bread, and some jams.
The dinner is a lot more interesting and different food is served for each night. The first night we had Kobe beef and sashimi as the main course. The Kobe beef was so tender and melt in the mouth. We wished that it gave more. The dessert came with fresh fruits and ice cream.
The dinner of the second night came with bream fish shabu shabu, which we really like. We get to cook the bream fish however we want. It also came with vegetables and mushrooms. The rice served is mixed with small fish, which we did not like too much. The second night's dinner also came with sashimi of different type of fish.
One thing to note is that the hotel provide yukata for its guests to wear, and guests can wear the yukata to the restaurant.
Overall, Hayakawa is a great restaurant to dine at. Its dinner portion is quite large and serves variety of food. It is just unfortunate that it only serves the guests who stays at Manatei Hotel. Hopefully one day it will open up to the public.
Hakone Shrine is one of the most famous shrine within Hakone. It is located on the South East side of Lake Ashi. It is famous due to having a Torii placed in the water and many tourists love to take a photo with the Torii. To get to Hakone Shrine, you can either take bus, or making several transfers via trains, cable cars, rope ways, and boat to get there. You can also drive to there since there is a large parking lot located beside the temple.
We made our way to Hakone Shrine after we got off the pirate ship cruise boat at the South end of Lake Ashi. It was a short walking distance of about 5 minutes to get to Hakone Shrine. There is a well maintained walking trail along the lake that leads to Hakone Shrine. We first walked up to cleanse our hands and visit the temple.
Many people there were buying the Japanese charms, or Omamoris to get some good luck. Some charms can cost up to 2000 Japanese Yen. There were also luck charms, or Omikuji that you could draw from the boxes. Omikuji ranged from 100 Japanese Yen to 200 Japanese Yen.
We drew an Omikuji from the box and got a golden turtle, which was quite surprising. We were only hoping for a piece of paper that would tell us our future fortune. It was quite interesting.
Afterwards, we walked down to the lake shore to check out the famous Torii built inside the water. There were so many people there and lined up to take photos one by one. We took a look at it but did not wanted to take a photo with it since the line was so long. As you can see from the photo, it would probably take like 30 minutes to get a chance to take a photo with the Torii.
Overall, it was an interesting visit to Hakone Shrine. Unlike other shrines that we have visited, this one was less crowded and felt very cozy. We recommend to visit this place if you have time and you will not disappoint.
Lake Ashi is the largest lake and the famous lake located within Hakone, Japan. It is one of the lake at the foothills of Mount Fuji. If you do not have a car, getting to Lake Ashi is not an easy task. From Odawara station, you first have to take Hakone Tozan railway to Hakone Yumoto station, then switch to another Hakone Tozan railway train to get to Gora. From there, take the Hakone Tozan Cable Car to go up to the mountain and finally switch to take the Hakone Ropeway to get over the mountains and back down to the lake shore. This whole trip could take 1.5 hours. Then from the lake shore, you can take boat cruise on the pirate ships.
We got to the lake shore boat cruise terminal at around 3PM. The boat cruise leaves every 30 minutes and there are 2 boats in operation. We were lucky to get onto the boat right away.
Although it is a pirate ship, the interior design of the boat is quite modern. This was quite disappointing. We were hoping to see some nice antique finishes inside the boat inside of modern seating plan. There are 3 levels on the boat and 2 different types of ticket. We only had economic ticket and could only sit at the economic cabin. For premium ticket, you could sit at the top of the deck. Most people go onto the deck and stand along the rail to enjoy the views.
At certain departure time, there are also pirate performances on the ship. We believe it's the 2PM cruise that has the performance, but we did not catch this.
The boat cruise has 3 terminals. 1 at the North end of the lake, and 2 at the South end of the lake. We got off at the South end of the lake, and then just took the bus back to our hotel. If you want to go to Hakone Shrine, you have to take the boat cruise and get off at the South East end of the Lake. This is closer to Hakone Shrine.
Overall, the boat cruise was not that impressive. We felt like this is something that was added on to attract the tourists. There was not much stuff to see and do around the lake either. We would not recommend this as the must see place on the travel itinerary.
Owakudani is one of the tourist attraction at Hakone, Japan. It is at the mountain peak where there are still some volcanic activities and smoke is constantly coming out of the surface. Getting to Owakudani is not an easy task from Hakone Yumoto, or from Hakone Gora. First, you would have to take the Hakone Tozan Railway to get to Gora. Then transfer to Hakone Tozan Cable Car and go all the way to Sounzan Station. Finally, you take the Hakone Ropeway all the way to the top of the mountain to Owakudani. This whole trip takes about an hour or so.
We got to Owakudani around 2PM in the afternoon. The railway train and the cable car was so unbelievably crowded. In addition, we were unlucky to ride an older railway train that did not have AC and it was so humid and hot.
When we got to Owakudani, it was foggy and hard to see things. The first thing when we got off the station is that we smell sulfur. A very strong sulfur smell. As we walked towards the observation deck, we could see smoke coming out of the ground. Unfortunately due to the foggy condition at the summit, we could not see very far.
Owakudani also has a very famous snack, and that is hot spring egg. The egg is cooked with volcanic sulfur water and appearance of the shell becomes black. The souvenir store was selling it for 5 for 500 Japanese Yen. We did not get it since we could not finish 5 eggs by ourselves. We looked at other people enjoying it and cracking the egg shell, the egg inside the shell is still white. So it did not look that bad. It might just be the smell that may smell bad. The store also indicated that it is a healthy food, but that is what they always say when they try to sell these things.
There is also a hiking trail to the mountain peak, but unfortunately the hiking trail was closed off due to some volcanic conditions. We love hiking and really wanted to hike up there. It was quite disappointing.
In general, we spent a lot of time on commuting all the way to the top just to see some smoke coming out of ground, it was a bit disappointing. We would not recommend this to be the must visit place, but if you are interested to take a boat cruise at Lake Ashi, you might as well stop by Owakudani.
Juhachiban Takoyaki is one of the most famous Takoyaki place at Dotonbori. There are many other Takoyaki restaurants at Dotonbori, but you cannot miss this one. Juhachiban Takoyaki has a huge 3D takoyaki model placed at the top of the restaurant. It is huge! This place also often has huge lines of people lining up to purchase takoyaki.
We walked around the entire Dotonbori, and we think Juhachiban Takoyaki would be the best one. We lined up to get our order placed. Then we noticed that orders are placed by purchasing food ticket from the ticketing machine. This was quite interesting to us. We looked at the ticketing machine, and there were many different selections to choose from.
There are 3 different flavors of takoyakis to choose from. There is also a selection where you will get a mix of all 3 different flavors. Then for 1 single flavor, you could also choose to have 6, 8, or 10 takoyakis. We got the 8 takoyaki of the original flavor, which is 800 Japanese Yen.
After we got the ticket, we gave it to the person to place the order. We could also see few employees making takoyakis in front of us. He was making a batch of 50 takoyakis at once. We were quickly being served with our order. We could feel the heat by just holding onto it. We then walked to the side of the restaurant where there are actually seats that the restaurant provides. The best part is that it also has AC running.
The takoyaki taste is really amazing and we loved it. The takoyaki was huge and round. The best part is that unless many takoyaki restaurants where they only give 1 piece of octopus, this restaurant places 2 pieces of octopus in 1 single takoyaki. We really loved this.
We really loved the takoyaki from Juhachiban Takoyaki. We wished we could have gone back and have more takoyaki from it if we could.
Dotonbori is a famous tourist attraction at Osaka, Japan. It is known for being the heaven for shoppers and a paradise for people who love food! This place is located at the heart of Osaka and it is huge. You can get there by taking the subway and get off at Namba station. Other than just being a tourist attraction, many local people also come here for shop and for food.
We took Shinkensen to Shin-Osaka station and then took the subway to Namba station. We got to Dotonbori around 3PM in the afternoon, and there were huge crowd of people when we got out of the station. It was insane. We first walked around to see what food is available. We saw that many restaurants place big 3D models at the to of the restaurants, such as crab, sushi, dumplings, and takoyaki.
We were also able to find the infamous drum playing robot on the street. We still remember this thing from the old classic popular Japanese manga about this dog named Bow Wow. In the manga, Bow Wow was at Dontobori and he accidentally knocked the drum paling robot over and its head rolled off. Bow Wow got scared to death and ran away from Donbori as fast as he could.
From Dontobori, by just walking over the bridge to cross the river, we got to the shopping district where there are tons of fashion shops selling clothing, electronics, and make ups. We walked around but did not get much, because we planned to buy all the stuff when we get back to Tokyo.
We highly recommend to visit this place if you are at Osaka, or even just Kyoto since it is less than an hour of train ride.
Koko-En Garden is a garden located right beside the Himeji Castle. It is a botanical garden like the Butcher Garden in Victoria, and it has many different type of Japanese garden. From exiting the Himeji Castle, Koko-En Garden is on the West side of the castle. It is just about 300 meters away and take about 5 minutes of walking time.
We went to Koko-En Garden right after visiting Himeji Castle, and this is because when we purchased the Himeji entree ticket, by just adding 40 Japanese Yen, we can the admission to Koko-En Garden. So we think it is a good deal. When we got to the garden, there was pretty much no one there. It was pretty deserted.
We walked in and we were greeted with Japanese style tea house. It looked quite zen and cozy. We could feel a nice chill breeze when entering the tea house, even during the hot and humid summer day. The tea house is built on top of the pond. There were many koi fish in the pond as well.
After exiting the tea house, walked onto a stone bridge over the pond to get to a different section of the garden. There were pine forest garden, water garden, bamboo garden, and many more. Each garden is separated by those old Japanese Edo era walls, which was quite interesting.
We think that the garden is a bit too boring, and lack of colors. This seems to be the theme of Japanese garden, it has less color and more focus on the water feature and the trees. On the other hand, other gardens such as Buchart Garden, it has a lot of flowers and adding a lot of color to the visuals. In addition, we think that the good part of Japanese garden is that it often has a pond with koi fish in it. So we think it can prevent mosquitos from mass breeding during the summer.
In general, we think that if you have extra time on your hand, it is a good place to have a quick visit, but it is not a must visit place like Himeji Castle.
