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For simplicity, this guide is divided in sections.

When you should go to Japan

If you would like to appreciate Japan you should visit it in April or May, during the Spring. During this period you could see the amazing Hanami – cherry blossom fest, the Golden Week (Apr 29 – May 5).

I have personally visited Japan in August, but humidity is very high and if you can’t stand it you really should consider to visit in in April or in October, with lower prices.

What bring with you in Japan

First of all take with you a large variety of clothes, better in your hand-luggage. This is useful if you lose your luggage (this happened to me!). On the other hand, weather changes frequently in Japan, expecially during spring, and you should be prepared with suitable clothes.

Be sure to have a credit card (see below) for any needs. Credit cards are appreciated and very used in Japan.

Another thing I recommend you is to check your passport or ask for a Welcome Card (see below) to your travel agency.

Customs

There are some rules you should keep in mind. When you arrive to Japan customs, while in queue, you will be asked to fill in a small module, with informations about time of stay and reason to your travel to Japan. As security measure, your fingerprints are taken by a custom employee.

There are no limits on money you can bring with you, but if you have more than 1 million Yen (about 10,000 USD) you have to declare it to immigrations.

You can’t also introduce drugs, porn material, everything that violates copyright, guns or ammo.

If you smoke, remember that you can bring in Japan no more than 400 cigarettes. Other limitations are on alcool (max 100 ounces) and parfume (2 ounces).

Entry Visa, Passport and Boarding Card

When you are on plane, before arriving, you will be asked to fill a boarding card. They will give you 2 of them: first one is for your arrive, the second should be filled when you leave.

If you plan to go to Japan as a tourist, you will not need an Entry Visa, since your passport is enough. In this case , your stay is limited to 90 day. This is applicable in case of tourism, study, sport, visiting parents or friends.

Remember that you should bring the passport with you in any moment, since you could even been arrested if you are found without it!

Welcome card

You can ask for a Welcome Card to your travel agency or, when you’re in Japan, in some tourist-information offices in Tokyo or Kyoto.

With a Welcome Card you can have a discount on hotels, ryokan, food, drinks and many tourist-related services too, like Museum and temple tickets.

Money

Japanese currency is Yen, which symbol is ￥.

Yen coins are:

￥1 (about 0.01 USD),￥5 (0.05 USD), ￥10 (0.10 USD), ￥50 (0.50 USD) , ￥100 (1 USD) and ￥500 (5.00 USD).

Paper money are:

￥1,000 (10.23 USD), ￥2,000 (20.46 USD), ￥5,000 (51.16 USD) and ￥10,000 (102.32 USD).

Remember that you can change paper money in your currency when you leave, but coins are not changed.

Photo source: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/

Banks

There are many banks in Japan, like Fuji Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui, Mizho Bank or Tokyo-Mitsubishi. Usually banks are open from 9am to 15pm from Mon to Sat. I don’t suggest travelers’ check since they are accepted only in the biggest banks.

Nippon Ginko is the government bank, but don’t change your money here, since this bank is not for tourists.

Credit cards

International credit cads are accepted. Here is a list of the most common used and accepted in Japan: American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard and VISA. Even if those cards are accepted in stores and hotels, you can’t always use them to withtdaw money from cashpoint machines (hole in the wall). Cashpoint cards aren’t usually accepted.

Change

You can change your currency or traveler’s check or cheques in post offices, on some big stores or in ryokan and hotels.

Medical care

Look for American Pharmacy in Tokyo, since you can find American and European medicines here.

AMDA Asian Medical Doctors Associations is the right choice if you need medical assistance, that is very professional in Japan. Alas, it is not cheap. You shold go to the hospital if you get ill or, if there are no particular problems, you should consult a pharmacist.

Electricity

photo credit japan-guide.com

Japanese voltage is 100 Volt and power outlets are 2-pin ungrounded.

Frequency of electric current is 50Hz in Eastern Japan, Tokyo, Hokkaido, Tohoku and Yokoama.

Frequency is 60Hz in Western Japan, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Shikoku, Kyushi, Nagoya, Osaka.

I suggest to buy electrical equipment in Japan if you need, since your could be damaged even if the power outlets are identical to North America ones.

Transports

There is a wide variety of transports avaible in Japan. Subways and trains are very efficient and always on time: these are the best transport choice in Japan.

Airports (Narita, Kansai)

If you want to reach Osaka or Kyoto, you should choose Kansai Airport, that is connected to Europe and North America.

Kansai Airport to Osaka: JR station is on the other side of the road near airport arrivals hall. You can just follow the marked walkway to reach the train station.
You can then choose between JR Haruka express train, that runs from Kansai Airpor to Kyoto, scaling in Tennoji and Shin-Osaka. From there you can take the Shinkansen (fastest Japanese train) to reach Osaka. Price is about 3,000 Yen (about 30 USD). This is the fastest solution, since you will reach Osaka in about 70 minutes.

Kansai Airport to Kyoto: follow the same instructions below and reach the train station and take JR train to Kyoto.

Narita Airport to Tokyo: there is a JR Station near Narita Terminals and you can go directly to Tokyo from here. If you have JR Rail Pass you can go directly to Tokyo using Narita Express (N’EX) Train.

Ship

You can choose to reach Japan by Ship. Asian seaports like Pusan in South Korea or Shangai in China provide motor vessels to reach Osaka or Kobe.

Trains

JR is the most important Rail group of Japan, and includes the famous shinkansen trains. My advice is to get a JR pass if you plan to use train to visit Japanese areas.

What is a JR pass? (Taken from our Mount Fuji Guide )

The Japan Rail Pass is a weekly, twice weekly or monthly ticket that allows you to travel by any train or bus (except the Shinkansen Nozomi and some other trains, but don’t worry: if you take one of this buses by mistake, you won’t be fined, you’ll just have to pay for the line you’re using). There are both first and second class tickets.

However, you cannot buy this pass in Japan, but only in the proper travel agencies.

You can ask for a pass in these agencies, and if you decide to buy it you’ll get all the documents you need to obtain an “actual” JR pass in Japan (it’s available in Narita and Kansai station, and in all the major stations in whole country). Just look for one of these offices with your vocheur and passport, and you’ll get your JRP, that will be active after its first use!

Be careful, only tourists (for a maximum of 90 days) can use a JRP, while it’s forbidden for Japanese citizens and people who went to Japan for job purposes.

Here’s a price list for the JRP in whole Japan and Kansai only, depending on duration and class. (more available passes are the JR East Rail Pass, JR West Rail Pass, JR Central Pass, JR Kyushu Pass, JR Hokkaido Pass e JR Shikoku Pass)

or

* Children fare: 6 to 11 (included) years old. For children from 0 to 5 years old, the ticket is free.

It is convenient to buy a pass only if you planned to travel by train everyday or you take long journeys. So think of it very carefully. You should also get a timetable to know time and durations. If you can’t speak Japanese will be difficult to ask for help about transports, since the majority of people can’t speak English.

One more benefit you’ll obtain thanks to this pass: the possibility do lodge in convention hotels belonging to the JR Hotel Group and pay less. Usually these hotels are close to the airports.

Warning! If you want to delete your reservation for the JRP before coming to Japan, you’ll have to pay a fine amount of 10% from the total, plus 46 $.

For more information about the JRP, visit the official site which is very detailed www.japanrailpass.net

Subway

Japan Subway is huge, since you can reach almost every place with it. Tokyo subway is the most widespread, but there are large subways in Kyoto, Osaka, Yokohama and Fukoka.

Every line has a different color and you can buy the ticket using the machines outsides subway entrances. For a detailed map of every subway in Tokyo and Kyoto, download the tourist information PDF below.

Taxi

Taxi are expensive in Japan, but you can use them if you are in hurry or you don’t know where to take a train or subway. Prices for taxi are similar to American ones, and doors opens automatically without the need for the driver to do that.

Etiquette

There are some etiquette rules that you should know before going to Japan. Most important ones are summarized below and could help you to be polite in social situations.

Bow

Bow is Japanese traditional way to greet. It is important to know that the lower you bow, the lower you are considered in hierarchical grade. Shaking hand is permitted for foreigners. You will notice that many personnel in shops or near elevators will bow at your passage. This is a common courtesy and you can smile or ignore it. There is no need to bow in those situations.

Shoes

Shoes are very important aspect of cultural etiquette. When you enter an house, a restaurant, a temple or an hotel take a look in the entrance. If you see other shoes nearby, you should remove yours too. If slippers are provided, you have to wear them; if not, you have to enter with socks or barefoot.

Remember that there are particular slippers on bathroom entrances, especially in ryokans, and you have to wear them when you are using the toilette, and remove them when you have finished.

Temples

If the temple has not a marble or rock floor, you have leave your shoes outside. Some temples gives you plastic bags to hold your shoes at entrance.

Inside a temple you have to be quiet, but there are no particular rules, since Japanese people are more superstitious than religious.

Queues

When you have to take the train, do as Japanese does: stay in the queue neatly. If you are stuck inside a train because there are a lot of people, say ‘orimasu’ that means ‘I need to get off’ and people will let you pass.

Japanese people are very clever in respecting queues, when you are in a restaurant, when you have to take the train or cross the road.

Giving a tip

Giving a tip is not necessary and sometimes could be offensive. Giving a tip is something you do with people you are in strict-contact, and in this case money are placed inside an envelope.

Information point

If you are in Tokyo or Kyoto you can go to a TIC (Tourist Information Center) that have very prepared and qualified personnel. Service is free. If you need more information on the web, you should visit jnto website.

More Information on the Web

• Google excerpt of Lonely Planet Japan Guide
• Japan Guides on WikiTravel
• Japan National Tourism Organization
• Tokyo on Wikipedia

Guide to Japan: the tourist guide

Places: read more about tourist aspect of Japan travel in our Japan Guide articles:

• Japan Guide: Nikko
• Japan Guide: Mount Fuji
• Tokyo Shinjuku and Shibuya guide
• Tokyo Guide
• Kyoto guide
• Japan guide: Shikoku.

Japan Guide: Download PDF

• Download this Japan Guide in PDF
• Download Japan tourist guide in PDF – 82 pages!

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Introducing Nikko – Japan guide

Nikkō (in Japanese:日光市, Nikkō-shi, literarily “light from the sun”) is situated 140km far from the North side of Tokyo, right in the middle of the National Park of Nikko, on the mountain discrict of Tochigi. It is easily reachable taking the Nikko line from the Asakusa station in Tokyo. The whole travel takes about two hours.

The JR station in Nikko is the most ancient in the Eastern Japan: it was made by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1915. Many buses leave from here going to the most important touristic places, but take this as an advice: walk by feet the street from the station to Tosho-gu, it just takes 15-20 minutes.

On the Ote-dori Avenue you can find many artisan crafts shops, the joiners making the geta, the famous Japanese sandals, are the most popular. You can also try a famous restaurant called Hippari Dako, next to the Shinkyo bridge: you may taste the specialiy tzuku-me, chicken meatballs skewers. The first temple you’ll see while walking to Tosho-gu is the Rinno-ji, made by Shodo Shonin in the 8th century.

The legend says that over 1200 years ago the monk Shodo Shonin was stopped in his journey to mount Nantaisan because of Daiya river. He begged for a bridge and his wish came true: a giant dressed in blue wearing a skulls necklace appeared, growling “Here’s your bridge!”, and throw two snakes, blue and green, over the river. So the monk could cross the river and both the giant and the bridge disappeared as soon as he could reach the other side. Right in this spot is now placed the red Holy Shinkyo Bridge. Once it was reserved to the samurais, but today everybody may do it just paying: that’s why I suggest to cross the side road, from where you can still admire it properly!

In the temple of Rinno-ji – the biggest building in Nikko – you’ll see the Sambutsu-do, also known as the “three Buddhas hall”: it refers to the three golden statues featuring the Amida Buddha, Senju Kannon and Bato Kannon. Beyond this hall there’s the Treasure room where all the precious of the Edo age are displayed.

Behind here, a nice path crosses the garden and the small lake among little bridges and stone lanterns. Coming back to the main street you’ll see the temples group called Tosho-gu, made by Tokugawa Iemitsu (1603-1651) in 1634, to honour his grandfather Ieyasu and show the power of the Tokugawa shogun people to other daimyo (feudal lords). Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) was a very important hostorical personality for Japan. In fact, he was the founder of the ancient capital city called Edo, now known as Tokyo. He also was the one who made the Tokugawa family powerful, starting the homonymous age. It was the two-centuries-and-a-half long samurai era, until they lost power in 1868. During his life Ieyasu was worshipped as a god, after his death he was considered a gongen (embodiment of Buddha) instead. He chose the name Tosho-Daigongen to play this role, and it’s what the temple is called after. About 15.000 craftsmen from all over the Country worked to the most beautiful temple of Japan restlessly.

Over the entrance to the Tosho-gu temple there’s a huge granite torii. On the left you can see a five-floors pagoda representing the five elements: earth, water, fire, wind, hollow. It was donated by a daimyo in 1650 and completely remade in 1818, after a fire. Going upstairs there’s the Nio Mon door, protected by two Nio statues: one of them has its mouth open like pronouncing the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, “ah”, the other one has it closed like saying the last letter “un”.

Walking through the Nio Mon entrance you’ll reach the first yard of the temple. Many buildings are all around, and among the decorations one in particular is very famous although many people don’t know its origin: the bassorilievo featuring the three monkeys “don’t hear, don’t see, don’t speak”. Their meaning is “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” and they’re assumed as the guardians of the temple.

Keeping on walking the path between the Drum Tower (left) amd the Bells Tower (right) – symbols of birth and death respectively – you’ll reach the Yomei Mon door, also known as the “sun entrance”, then the sanctuary itself. The Yomei Mon door was the ancient limit for the less important samurais, while common people were banned from the Nio Mon door. In the sanctuary two more warlords whom the temple was dedicated (1873) to can be worshipped besides Tokugawa Ieyasu: Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) and Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199). On the right of the main sanctuary there’s a path where the Sleeping Cat paint can be seen if you pay 500¥, and you may buy his talismans too! Not far from here the stairs start; walking through the vegetation you’ll reach the Treasure Tower, where Tokugawa Ieyasu’s ashes are kept.

Another very important temple in Nikko is the one dedicated to Tokugawa Iemitsu, Ieyasu’s grandson, who also wanted a sanctuary to be worshipped! It’s the Taiyuin-byo, placed in an extraordinary Japanese cedar wood. Like the former, this is a group of buildings that consists in a walk that leads to Taiyuin’s tomb (the buddhist name of Iemitsu) crossing six doors. The first door is the Nio Mon entrance with two Nio warrior gods assumed as the guardians of the temple.

Right in front of this spot there’s a granite source with a dragon reflecting in the water below, painted by Kano Yasunobu. If you keep on walking you’ll meet the Niten Mon door with four guardian statues put inside niches: in the foreground there are the gods Komoku and Jikoku, in the background the green statue represents the wind god, while the red one is the thunder god. After a few stairs up you’ll find the Drum and the Bells Towers, symbols of birth and death like the ones described formerly. Not far there’s the Yasha Mon door, also known as Botan Mon, or “peony door” because of its floral decorations. The fourth one is the Kara Mon door, which is the entrance to the main outer sanctuary called Haiden: it keeps Kano Yasunobu’ works. From now on the entrance is usually forbidden to the public.

Over the Haiden there’s the Honden, an inner sanctuary with a golden altar and a statue of Iemitsu. On the right, the Koka Mon door made in Chinese Ming style leads to the last entrance, then to Iemitsu’s tomb. While visiting Nikko you should not miss the Chuzen-ji lake and the Kegon falls, next to the holy mountain Nantaisan. They can be easily reached by the buses travelling from the train station to the East lakeside of Chusenji. Mind the travel sickness, since the road is narrow and winding!

Prices in Nikko

Visiting the sanctuaries costs about 300-400 ¥ each. At the Rinno-ji you may buy one ticket to visit them all (about 1300 ¥) and the entrance to the Sleeping Cat in Tosho-gu is included.

Hotels in Nikko

Nikko is easily reachable from Tokyo and just one day is enough to visit it, so close to the city you will only find Japanese style inns.

Pension Hillside Terrace (tel 0288 54 3235): Nice and neat place with excellent food. Pension Turtle (tel 0288 53 3168). Nice place close to the Tosho-gu temple with comfortable rooms.

Kanaya Hotel: Very elegant hotel founded in the XIX century nect to the Daiya river. From 20,000 ¥ (204 USD) to 50,000 ¥ (510 USD). Phone : +81 0288 54 0001 – fax: +81 0288 53 2487 email: nikko@kanayahotel.co.jp – web: http://www.kanayahotel.co.jp/english/nikko/

Web resources:

http://www.toshogu-koyoen.com/ - temple of Tosho-gu

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The central Honshu is the central part of Japan, of course, as you can see from the map here below, and going there in April or so would be the best, since winters are very cold and summers are sultry.

It is a very wide area, full of interesting places to be visited. Here’s the Kanto region (where the wonderful and mysterious manga called Death Note takes place, just to let you know!), so you absolutely have to visit both Tokyo and Kyoto!

The first one for its futuristic technlogies, the second one for its traditions and natural landscapes! You may also visit Nagoya, a small town with a castle built in 1610-1612, unfourtunately destroyed because of the war in 1945 but later rebuilt.

The castle is available to be visited, and its interiors offer an observatory and an exhibit concerning its story. To travel around the city, it’s better to use a rent car or bus lines. If you like archeological stuff, just can’t miss the Tokugawa Fine Arts museum, where illustrations, finds and treasures of the Edo age are displayed!

Image credit: ferrimarco.blogspot.com

I will never have enough time to list them all down, but among all of the itineraries of Japan you should absolutely take the mount Fuji (or Fujiyama) one, with its five lakes and breathtaking landscapes.

Panoramic vieto the mount Fuji

Image credit: fotoseimagens.etc.br

The Mount Fuji, as you know, is a still active volcano, but we consider it like an estinguished one since its last eruption happened in 1708, it’s about 3776m high, and that’s why it can be seen from almost whole Japan.

The best period to visit this place is summer without any doubt, about in July/August, since these are the only available months to explore the huge volcano: the paths become very dangerous during the rest of the year, so they’re forbidden to the public.

The zone is easily reachable by the Tokaido Shinkansen train, to one of these stations: kawaguchi-ko, Gotenba, Fuji-Yoshida or Mishima.(if you’ve planned a more than two weeks long journey, I suggest to buy the season ticket for the Shinkansen, this way you’ll spend less for sure! I’ll explain it better at the end of the guide).

The road to the volcano is still far from here, but you can easily take one of the many bus lines that will drive you just next to the mount. Guests usually like to start their way from Gotenba, to enjoy the nice view – especially at the sunset – and the chill air of this place.

Gotenba station (Image credit: panoramio.com)

If you want to see a preview of the mount Fuji I’ve found this Live Camera thanks to which you can see the volcano.

Pricelist for the bus tickets and travel timing starting from the stations of Tokyo, Kansai, Shinjuku and Nagoya to Mount Fuji:

- From the bus station in Tokyo: The five lakes area is easily reachable from Tokyo to any direction and the travel takes 2 hours. (the bus lines are the easiest and cheapest way to get to the kawaguchi-ko or Gotenba stations, in fact if you’d take two trains and a bus, the cost would be about 6000¥ (about 59$) and the travel takes 6 hours!)

- From Kansai to Kawaguchi-ko: this way takes many train exchanges before getting to Mishima and you’ll spend about ¥6000 for 3 hours and a half travelling.

- From Shinjuku to Kawaguchi-ko: 2 hours and a half travelling, spending 2600¥ (about 25$) for one ticket

- From Nagoya to Gotenba: you could take the Tokaido Shinkansen to Numazu, then get off and take the bus line to Gotenba (5 hours travelling and about 5,500¥ (about 54$) spent).

Click on the picture for larger size

If you’re planning to climb the mount, my only suggestion is to be ready to endure a hard, difficult, long and tiring way up! While getting to the top of the volcano temperatures will fall, so you’ll need warm clothes, sun protection, a stick to climb and a hat. When on top you may also walk the whole crater (it takes about one hour), so be ready and store some water since the one sold there costs about 500¥ (about 5$) for half a litre!

On the way to the mount you’ll also find some sanctuaries to visit, like the Sengen ones, a snack-bar open 24/24 hours, a mail office and a weather station.

Sengen Sanctuary in Nishinomiya Honden (Image credit: flickr.com)

Sengen Jinja sanctuary in Fujiyoshida (image credit: flickr.com)

If you like having fun and relaxina more, you may visit the many theme parks placed in the five lakes zone (also known Fuji-go-ko) at the feet of the Fujiyama. This place is very appreciated by Japanese people from Tokyo, because of its sport campings!

The five lakes – as a previously said – are:

The Motosu lake: it’s the less crowded lake since is the most isolated, so it’s an excellent choice if you want to stay in touch with nature in total tranquillity, moreover, it never freezes!

Image credit: flickr.com

The Shojin lake is the smallest of the five lakes and the most abounding in fish. It’s surrounded by the Aokigahara – Jukai also called “sea of trees”, a wonderful wood.

Image credit: flickr.com

Detail of Aokigahara – Jukai (the sea of trees) – Image credit: flickr.com

The Yamanaka lake is where you can water-ski! This lake is not very peculiar, unless you take the huge swan-shaped hydrofoil, by which you can visit the whole lake in about 35 minutes, spending 900¥ (about 9$).

(Does this lake remind you of something? Yeah, it’s Ino Yamanaka’s first name in the manga Naruto! It literarly means “through the mountains”)

(Image credit: flickr.com)

The swan-shaped hydrofoil (Image credit: flickr.com)

The Kawaguchi Lake: is the most easily reachable of the lakes and that’s why it’s also the most poular among tourists. In the middle of it there’s a small island with a little sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Unoshima and her beauty. In spring this lake offers a wonderful landscape known as “Sakasa Fuji”, i.e. the mirrored image of the cherry trees in bloom over the lake, from the north side of it.

Image credit: flickr.com

The Sai lake (or Ashinoko): it’s the most untouched of the lakes, from where you can see the whole Fujiyama in all its majesty. Close to the lake there are two prehistoric caves formed during one of the eruptions: the Narusawa Ice Cave and the Fugaku Wind Cave. Here’s a small village too, in the place where before 2006 there were many old buildings ruined by an hurricane. Entrance is not free, adults pay about 200¥ (2 $), children 100¥, open from 9am to 5pm. In these buildings you can find many handmade items in silk and paper.

Image credit: flickr.com

Detail of the Narusawa Ice Cave (Image credit: flickr.com)

Point of curiosity: in teory the lakes surrounding mount Fuji should be seven, the missing two are the Tanuki and the Glory one, dedicated to the princess Glory. This one is hidden in the volcano.

If your travel comprehends 26th and 27th of August, you shouldn’t miss the Yoshida no Hi Matsuri (feast of fire), at the feet of the volcano. It’s a Japanese tradition to have this feast in the city of Fuji-Yoshida, to celebrate the end of summer and propitiate the safety of the climbers.

(Image credit: flickr.com)

Where may I have a meal in this place?

If you want to have a break close to the mount Fujiyama, you’ve plenty of choices to taste typical food. On the Sai-ko for example you may try the Soba and the Konyakku (Marana starch, kind of flour made out of tropical tubers and roots).

At Fuji-Yoshida, next to the Kawaguchi-ko lake, you can eat the Teuchi Udon, kind of homemade wheat noodles, that taste nice with Tempura and Niku (beef meat). Here’s a list of some restaurants you can find in the zone of Fuji-Yoshida:

- Sakigake: open only at evening from Tuesday to Sunday. It costs about 600-800¥ (about 7-8$). You may taste Tofu salad, Sashimi, Yakitori and drink Shochu (it is a typical Japanese liquor, similar to the sake, but it has about 25% alcool and is a distilled of rice, barley and sweet potatoes).

- M2: everyday open restaurant from 11am to 10pm. Both Western and Japanese menu are available. It costs about 700-1300¥ (from 8 to 13 $). The specialties offered by this restaurant are curry rice, hamburgers and pork sautè.

- Michael’s American Pub: Restaurant open from Wednesday to Friday from 8pm to 2am (from Friday to Sunday it’s open at lunch too). This club is perfect for people who don’t want to renounce to western food, since haburgers and pizza are served too.

- Fujiyama Beer Brewery: this is a beer club where lunch and dinner are also served. It offers western menu too, including sausages, pizza, salads, cheeses and beer. It costs about 714-1300¥ (8-13 $).

- Cafè Matsuya: if you need a coffee or tea break, this is the right place for you! Open from Tuesday to Thursday 9am-7pm, on Friday 9am-10pm and on Saturday and Sunday 11am-10pm. Here you may also buy homemade souvenirs!

Closer to the Kawaguchi-ko lake, other restaurants can be found:

- Hotō Fudō: Open only at lunch time, it costs about 1050¥ (about 10$). The specialty here is the stew.

- Sanrokuen: restaurant open from Friday to Wednesday 11am-8pm, spending about 2100-4200¥ (21-42 $). This restaurant is peculiar because you’re allowed to cook your own dishes if you want, thanks to large embers on the floor next to the tables! Fish, chicken, tofu, steaks and vegetables will still be served. The restaurant is easily recognizable tank to its straw roof! (official site: sanrokuen.com)

Where could I lodge?

If you want to lodge next to the mountain paths, personally I don’t suggest so since you’ll only find expensive common places where to sleep for just a few hours in a sleeping bag (about 5000¥ / 50 $ for one night). Moreover, if you don’t buy anything, one single hour in these place will cost 500¥ (about 5 $).

The Fuji-Yoshida and Kawaguchi-ko are nice places were to lodge instead, where you can find cheap/average guest-houses, hotels and hostels.

Let’s see in detail hotels and hostels in Fuji-Yoshida: (all prices must be considered for one person and for one night)

- Fuji-Yoshida Youth Hostel: a small hostel offering both western and eastern styled rooms, only shared with other people. Excellent view on the Fujiyama. Very cheap. It costs about 2835¥ (28 $). It’s about 600m far from the Shimo-Yoshida station, so it’s easily reachable by feet too.

- Tabijiya: double and single rooms in western style. The prices are really cheap considering the place and it’s the perfect choice for resting after a long day walking around the mount. Prices may differ depending on the room, but still you’ll spend from 5750¥ to 11.600¥ (about 57-115 $). Moreover, it’s only 10 minutes far from the center of Fuji-Yoshida. (breakfast is not included, but with only 750¥ (7 $) you’ll have plenty of food!)

- Daikokuya: this is another hotel with average prizes, spending 6600¥ per person (60 $) you’ll sleep in a double traditional room, with tatami and private garden. The Doikokuya is only 10 minutes far from the Fuji-Yoshida station.

Here’s a list of the hotels in Kawaguchi-ko (from the same station to the chosen hotel, all transports are free).

- Kawaguchi-ko Youth Hostel: this hostel is open from the second half of March to the first days of November. Cheap prices, 3360¥ per person (about 33 $) but it only offers beds in common rooms. Also traditional rooms with castle beds are offered. It’s next to the Kawaguchi station, about 500m in south direction. This hostel also offers bicycles for 800¥ (about 8 $) per day and curfew is set at 9pm.

- Hotel Sunnide Village: Hotel with nice rooms and private bathroom, great view on the town and mount Fuji. Average prices. There are “Backpacker” discounts for the ones who arrive without booking (if rooms are available, of course). It costs about 6300¥ (51€), with discount 4200¥ (42 $). There’s a restaurant where you can have a breakfast (1050¥ / 10 $) and dinner (2100¥, 21 $). The dinner also is subject to the backpacker discount, so you’ll pay 1575¥ (about 15 $).

- Ashiwada Hotel: big single and double rooms available, in both japanese and western style, with private bathroom. There are also public toilets and thermal baths in open air (also known as Rotemburo). Average-high prices. A single room costs 6000¥, a double one is 12.000¥ (119 $). This hotel is placed in a residential district on the west lakeside of Kawaguchi-ko.

- Fuji Lake Hotel: seven floors hotel made in 1635, close to the center of Kawaguchi, it offers both single and double rooms with bathroom (private or public, or with external thermal bath) and meal reservation. Very expensive. You’ll pay about 8000¥ (79 $, meal not included), with lunch+dinner reservationcon you’ll spend 12.000¥ instead (about 119 $). Panoramic view of the lake and the Fujiyama.

One more place you shouldn’t miss close to the mount Fuji and the lakes is Hakone. It’s an ancient thermal village build on a extinct volcano, thanks to which many hot springs and Geysers can be found today.

This city is easily reachable by public transports. There’s a direct bus line from Shinjuku (the two hour long travel costs 1950¥, about 19 $). There are about 20 travels per day. Hakone can also be reached by train, from many stations.

Well, as I already said before, now I’ll list a few suggestions that can be useful when travelling around Japan by public transports. If you’re planning to travel a lot, you should buy a Japan Rail Pass.

What is a JR pass?

The Japan Rail Pass is a weekly, twice weekly or monthly ticket that allows you to travel by any train or bus (except the Shinkansen Nozomi and some other trains, but don’t worry: if you take one of this buses by mistake, you won’t be fined, you’ll just have to pay for the line you’re using). There are both first and second class tickets.

However, you cannot buy this pass in Japan, but only in the proper travel agencies.

You can ask for a pass in these agencies, and if you decide to buy it you’ll get all the documents you need to obtain an “actual” JR pass in Japan (it’s available in Narita and Kansai station, and in all the major stations in whole country). Just look for one of these offices with your vocheur and passport, and you’ll get your JRP, that will be active after its first use!

Be careful, only tourists (for a maximum of 90 days) can use a JRP, while it’s forbidden for Japanese citizens and people who went to Japan for job purposes.

Here’s a pricelist for the JRP in whole Japan and Kansai only, depending on duration and class. (more available passes are the JR East Rail Pass, JR West Rail Pass, JR Central Pass, JR Kyushu Pass, JR Hokkaido Pass e JR Shikoku Pass)

or

* Children fare: 6 to 11 (included) years old. For children from 0 to 5 years old, the ticket is free.

It is convenient to buy a pass only if you planned to travel by train everyday or you take long journeys. So think of it very carefully. You should also get a timetable to know time and durations. If you can’t speak Japanese will be difficult to ask for help about transports, since the majority of people can’t speak English.

One more benefit you’ll obtain thanks to this pass: the possibility do lodge in conventioned hotels belonging to the JR Hotel Group and pay less. Usually these hotels are close to the airports.

Warning! If you want to delete your reservation for the JRP before coming to Japan, you’ll have to pay a fine amount of 10% from the total, plus 46 $.

For more information about the JRP, visit the official site which is very detailed www.japanrailpass.net

Some more advices you should take: remember to bring a medical kit with you in case you get hurt, since it may be difficult for strangers to receive first aid sometimes; it’s also useful to buy an adapter for the taps, since it’s very difficult to find hotels offering European taps, and make yourself sure that your sets support 110 volts at least (in case, buy a transformer or your taps may crash).

Said all of this, what else I have to say? Have fun in Japan and enjoy your trip!

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Akihabara can be easely reached with the JR Yamanote Line and the best time to visit it is in the later at night. At 11:00 pm the place is completely dead. Actually each block has its “opening time” and it’s normal to move from an ampty one to a crowded one in little time. Our hotel was in OchaNoMizu and so we were able to reach Akihabara on foot.
On foot you can move along this street and Akihabara is visible right away, its giant billboards are obvious even from far away.

Once in Akihabara we saw a great number of people cramming on the streets and in the shops. Here you can see bright signs for CDs, DVDs, Computers, games shops, and Karaoke.

We went inside some of these shops and noticed that their set-ups were always alike: shops spread out on more than one floor are reachable by stairs or elevators. Each floor has it’s own payment point. We saw posters of Shin Kotetsu Jeeg along the Akihabara main street

Another nighttime picture of Akihabara. The colourfull lights of the signs is quite enough to light the street up.

The people gather close to the pedestrian walkways in a continuous flow that seems to never stop. Along the street there was also some cosplay dressed girls giving away flyers of shops and clubs or sponsored items like fans or tissues. In the photo you see pedestrians waiting to move across the street, a very HUGE number of people waiting near the traffic-light. The traffic-lights were also hooked up with a nifty device that makes a sound so that blind people know when to cross the street.

Sadly it was forbidden to take pictures inside the shops. Following, you can see two almost-human-sized robots buyable at insane prices. Some of them were marked with prices around 1.000.000 Yen, ($9,300 USD) The Robot in the photo is the Great Mazinga just outside of a shop.

And this one is the super classic Gundam rx-78-2

Walking around is of course a nice way to make you VERY hungry, so we  moved toward the hotel to eat something.
And what’s better than a cup of steaming ramen?! We entered the shop and the very kind waitress showed us our table and took the orders (the water is always free) and in little time we are ready to eat. *ç* Our first Ramen!! Delicious *ç*

For now it’s all, I hope this was apetizing!
ciao !!
.::Yuki_Sakuma::.

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After our Okonomiyaki dinner we slept and when we were roused at 8 o’clock the following morning we were greeted by a pleasant surprise of breakfast. As always, most of it was a surprise, but we ate as much as possible since we had a long march ahead of us.
This is our last breakfast in Kyoto, there was a sole (fish), rice and a strange broody kind of tofu (I think… ). Despite its questionable nature, I really liked it and ate it without question (it’s the little cup in the middle of the picture).

Here it is a close up look at the mysterious food. There was some soft leaves and a little hill of wasabi on top of the tofu.

After breakfast we cleaned up the mess in our room, made sure we hadn’t forgotten anything, and went to the lobby for Check Out.
Another surprise: Our bags was there!!!!!!!!!!! And they were covered in stickers and sheets of a delivery agency: the KuroNekoYamato (their logo is so cute^^!). Japanese use a lot of visual comunication: once we even saw a sign picturing a chopped off finger to indicate a dangerous sharp edge… °_°,
Here’s logo, isn’t it sweetest? A momma-cat that’s “delivering” a kitten. We saw a lot of their advertisements on the streets and they also had a bunch of commercials on TV, too.

While thanking the Fox god, we gladly took our bags and rejoicedin the fact that we finally had our luggage back!!! After check-out we said our good-byes and hopped over to the train station. It was time to take the Shinkansen!!
While being the faamous high-speed japanese train, Shinkansen is also very comfortable. At the station everything was so clean and orderly, the only airhead was me since I almost lost the tickets.  When I realized it my folly, I ran back to find them and a very kind man (a ticket-checker, I guess) had already found them and thankfully gave them back… The train station was huge! On the ground there were even markings of the exact place where the train door was going to be.
The Shinkansen station in Kyoto, the girl in the center of the picture seems to say: “you’re going to miss the train!”

The trip lasted less than two of hours. In each car there was an LCD screen showing the news, the weather forecasts and the following stops. Even though it was all in Japanese I managed to understand some of it ^^. Once in Tokyo we had to find the hotel, so we followed the instructions we found on the internet: we moved toward OchaNoMizu station. The way was quite easy to find; but even so, a man stopped by us to offer directions while we were studing the map. The hotel was quite close, too, so in little time we checking-i.n
The Ryokan was on the top of one of the many little hills of the Tokyo zone.
In the following picture you can see the height of the location of the hotel; the bathing woman drawn on the left is the insigna of the  HOTEL EDOYA (the name of the Ryokan is also written in kanji on the side of the building).

In our room we found a couch, not really Japanese, but the rest was in the Japanese style. The toilet was a little worse than the one in Kyoto, this one wasn’t the space-toilet and I was rather sad about that. The futon was olso a bit strange and the pillow was somewhat grainy. Even so, we were in Tokyo, so I didn’t complain!!!
Here are our 3 futons. Mine was the red one^^

Looking from the window you can see the signboard and the street, We were finally in Tokyo, but it was time to take some rest since this time we had the bags. ^^
Here it’s a picture taken from the window; the electric cables are very close to the buildings. °_°

Finally we were able to take a refreshing shower and wear something clean. But sadly, for today that’s all! I’m waiting for you at the next chapter!

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We nicknamed it the “hunt & fishing shop”. There we bought some shirts and slacks. To find pants and socks we went to a 24/24 minimarket that are very common in Japan. They’re called “Family Markets” and they sell a bit of everything, from instant ramen to batteries, which is very pratical. There are three main chains: the Family Mart, the ampm and the  7eleven; the prices were really cheap. Against the general stereotypes, the food and the transportation are very good and cheap in Japan. It’s the lodging fee that’s incredibly expensive. Around 6 times the income of a medium family.

Here it is one of the 3 typical 24/24 shops, You can also find postcards and stamps, here.  You can buy some delicious hot Nikuman.

After the shopping we returned to the hotel and the receptionist informed us that our bags were found and that they would be there right in time for check-out (I also had to talk on the phone in Japanese to an employee of the lost and found office °_°) on the 24th August. The godly fox granted our wishes and our climb was worth the pain!! After some rest we went to eat. This time we chose a little family restaurant in the middle of the shopping street. We ate really good stuff. I finally ate a giant cup of white rice and roasted eel. Delicious!

Here you can see my dinner, on the left is the rice with eel, in the middle sweet & sour meatball, than the miso soup, the tofu an half boiled egg, fruit-salad and salad.

Afterwards, we returned to the hotel (our futon was already set) to choose our next destination. The Kiyomizu temple and again the Fushimi Inari to give thanks for the “luggage miracle” seemed like good ideas. We also wanted to take some other pictures. We fell asleep really early.

The morning after we began with another super huge breckfast: new strange food for us, too, this time!

The second day breakfast, everything was very good, but I couldn’t eat some thin fried fishes. Maybe becouse they still had their eyes, they where watching me °_° . The white rice, miso soup and tea were great, though.

Since the first day we came to Japan we kept seeing news about a very big man. Every day, all channels, always the same pictures. Later, we eventually found out that he was a sumo wrestler! In the beginning we didn’t notice it a lot, but after three days of the same news and discussions about him we began to be obsessed with him, too!! He was always there. He won the Japanese championship and that he was born in Mongolia, apparently. He was coming back there to get care for mental disorders °_°

Here it is the tv news, there was always the same scenes, him riceiving the cup, him walking at the airport, him plaing soccer and riding a (poor) horse, those disturbing pictures were with us all along the trip…

After the great wrestler scoop, we headed to the Kiyomizu Dera, a wonderfull temple in Kyoto. It’s high balcony is well-renowned. It’s said that since the balcony is a bit independent you have the sensation of falling. Though, we didn’t really notice it. Maybe because there was a lot of people. The ticket to get in was pretty cheap, though.

We tried to reach on feet the temple using cards and street signals, too… and…  well, we got lost!!

The main door of another temple we found while looking for the Kiyomizu:

This one was certanly a wonderful temple too, but the Kyomizu was waiting for us. We were losing our hopes when we found our salvation in a parking lot! A TAXI!! Japanese taxis are peculiar since they are all laced on the inside and the passenger door is automated, it is a bit upsetting to see. So we took a ride to the Kiyomizu Dera and found that we were still far from it; the driver was very kind and explained us where we were and the names of the places we were moving through. The ride was not expensive, either. There is a fixed bill of about 650 Yen up to 2 km, after that there is an extra per km. The last section of street was walkable only.

We were on an uprising street filled with souvenir shops heading to the temple and at the end of it we were in front of the red and white temple door.

After the gate we founnd another stairway an the fountain. While rising we notice the bell that’s used to announce the new yaer by hitting it 108 times.

The staiway to the main temple:

This is the bell that’s used to announce the new year:

The temple was wide, mainly built in wood, with the big and renowned balcony. We bought the tickets and entered…
in the next photo you can see the right side of the temple entrance.

The middle side of the temple entrance

We looked at a big altar in the middle and found that it was filled of little statues (shinto and buddhist), the kiyomizu dera is indeed a multi-religious temple. Coming closer we noticed a statue of Daikoku, one of the 7 luck deities.

In the temple you can also find buddha statues with the relatives bodhisattva. Mostly those sculptures are placed in the most inner an darker place so the pictures are not perfect. Even so the beauty and the holyness of the buddha amida was obvious.

A classic rappresentaion of Buddha trinity among his bodhisattva. Each Buddha has bodhisattva; thay can be thought as some sort of saints

The sight from the balcony of the temple. During the winter it shoud be clearer ^^

We took some pictures at the balcony and we moved to the torii we saw before hoping to find Inari. This is the Torii at Kiyomizu dera, the stairway leads to many little shinto altars.

We found here many souvenir and omamori sellers, but due to our loyalty to the Fushimi Inari Taisha we didn’t buy anithing, the prices were also a little higher. We found the Fox!! It was there waiting for us, so we passed by to say hallo ^^ At the Inari altar at Kiyomizu dera (even if it was just a “branch” of the main temple) we prayed and made a little offering. Even so, we were going to return to the Fushimi Inari to thank the Fox for the “luggage miracle”.

There were many other little temples. There was also a statue of Daikoku. If you touch it and ask for a wish, then the god will sooner or later make it true. We didn’t do any praying to him to show our faith in the Fox ^^

Here it’s the little altar of Daikoku, the one on the left is the statue that grants the wishes

Here you can see it in detail, obviously it’s touched a lot since it’s all smooth and shiny:

There was also a big stone with a shimenawa around it, It was the only and true love stone…

All you have to do is to touch the stone and then reach it’s twin to the other side of the yard, without looking; If you make it you’ll find your beloved one. If someone helps you, You’ll have to be helped from this person also in finding your love. While walking around we saw a lone pagoda. The Pagoda wasn’t that big, but was very fit for the place, it was almost it’s natural place ^^

Along the road we could see the Kiyomizu from afar and in a more complete way, it’s really spectacular. It was build in 798 dc and it’s the most ancient in Kyoto, due to some problem with fire though it was re-built many times. The last one was in 1633, the Edo era. This temple is also recognised as a Humanity Treasure by the UNESCO.
Following some picture from afar, great huh?

Here you can see better another pagoda:

Another side of the balcony:

Along the street and among the trees there were a red torii with a statue of Inari.
It seems that Inari is really loved in Japan!

There are always two foxes facing each other, the only difference is what they have in their mouths. This is a close up picture of the belowed Fox!!

After a long walk around the temple we arrived in front of a little spring, it was crowded°°.
It was apparently the “eternal youth fountain” that grants long and healty life!!! It was too crowed and hot to wait around, though… U-U

Once out of the temple we ran back to the Fushimi Inari to buy some more omamori. The priestess learned to know us and was almost placing the red carpet for us
Once in hotel we refreshed ourselves and got ready for our last (but not the least!!!) dinner in Kyoto. This time we had Okonomiyaki. We found an underground restaurant that served them. There was a hub incorporated into the table where you could keep your okonomiyaky hot while choosing the dressings. Okonomiyaki are really “dense”!! Okonomiyaki are good, but heavy… on the table there was also the paddles to turn around your okonomiyaki.

Afterwards, we had a little walk and than we went to sleep. The day after,  our bags finally come back!!!
Well then… our experience in Kyoto finishes here!! Next time: Tokyo!!!  Bye!!
.::Yuki_Sakuma::.

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Fuishimi Inari Taisha Temple can be easily reached from the Jr. Station of Fushimi Inari.  At the train station the walls were decorated with many little foxes painted close to the station name, and the color scheme of bright orange reflected the temple itself.

Once at the station we started to walk to the temple following some foxy indication. We were very lucky since it was midweek and there was almost no one around. We had the chance to see the temple in all of its magnificence. Our only trouble was the terrible temperature of the Japanese summer. The humidity was suffocating. The very special aspect of this temple was the incredibly high number of torii donated from the believers in it: they build up long galleries all orange and black and walking through them is a unique experience. Eventually we reached the temple “doors”. Our experience was just at the begining and we didn’t know the incredible power we were going to meet there.

At the very moment we stepped in we saw the ablution spring, where it is recomended one should wash his or her hands (first the right one then the left one) and then mouth to wash away the unwise words spoken.

Below is Yuki while purifing himself.

Below is the first building of the temple. We could see many statues of the holy fox, some of them had a votive red collar.

From the yard we wnt to buy some omamori and a souvenir or two. After that we finally went to the torii galleries. It was quite a sight, a neverending series of torii extending all the way to the side of the mountain. Once inside we noticed that there was a stairway inside. The temple was built on the side of the mountain and there was about 40 sections of stairways. All of them were covered in torii and along the way many little temples and Inari statue could be found.

Below are the torii. I love them, they are all orange beside the black top and the base. This is one of the first one, placed at the beginning of a ward. At a crtain point the Ward splits in two different way, both of them take visitors to the top of the hill.

Another sight of the tunnel, the torii were so close each other that the sun couldn’t reache the ground, giving the place a very special and strange atmosphere.

At the end of the torii ward we reached a yard. In this place there was an altar covered of fox-shaped tablets, coming closer we found that they were votive tablets each inscribed with a prayer to Inari. The tablets were shaped like a fox face and white painted. You just had to make an offer, write you wish on one of them, hug it with the other and pray. The fun thing was that each tablet was customized by the believers, creating an incredible amount of unique foxes. We also bought a tablet for our wishes ^^

These are the fox tablets, all wonderful ^^

After we made the offer, we pulled the rope of the bell. We also asked the fox to get back our lost bags, the fox is trustworty In the next episode you’ll learn the fox’s power began to reveal itself, but more on that later! After the fox tablets we walked through another torii ward up to a bifurcation. On a road-sign I read “bamboo forest” (in kanji). We couldn’t miss such a chance, so we followed the indication through a little street and while walking I took this picture.

After some walking we reached the forest. I have never seen so much bamboo!!! It was like being in the “House of Flying Daggers” movie. Really wonderful…

Too bad we didn’t se any pandas. That would have been fun! , After a little we came back to the torii gallery.

Every now and then there was a little yard with little shops and benchs to take some rest and get drinks. We also sat a while since the climb was very hard due to the hot weather and all the stuff we had. Even so, we reached the top and the view was wonderful. We could see the far away Kyoto. By the way, we walked quite a lot to have gotten so far from Kyoto °_°

This is the landscape at top of the hill of the Fushimi Inari Taisha. Stunning!

After a break we came back using a different route so we could see some other little temples along the way. The way back was quite easier even though if we would have stumbled it would have been horrible since we would probably have ended up rolling all the way down to the door of the main temple building. On the way back we saw a lot of little temples and altars with very beautiful and different statues.

Here are some pictures of them.

A grottesque wood statue

Stony frogs at the base of a torii

A bronze statue, maybe it’s Kannon in the mudra of the teaching

Yuki admires the buddha statue in Abhaya and Varada Mudra

A Bodhisatva statue, maybe Gakko or Nikko

A bunch of dolls ^^

A series of ropes where you’re supposed to tie the Omikuji to the wind.

After another long walk we reached the base of the hill and stopped at a shop to refresh ourselves. It was really hot so what’s better than a good strawberry Kakikori to cool down a bit? It’s nothing other than a Japanese crushed-ice drink. A machine grinds a cube of ice until it’s as thin as the snow and than it’s served with a fruit syrup. Delicious!!

Strawberry Kakikori eaten in a little shop close to the Fushimi Inari Taisha. The close up one is with strawberry syrup only, the other two are with milk too. Enjoy!!!

The crushed-ice drinks helped us a lot since climbing the hill was hard. But it was also needed to achieve a thing that I’ll tell you the next time. See you!!

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First off, we had to take off our shoes and leave them with those of the other customers. A very kind waitress walked us to our seats and gave us some menus. Luckly, they were illustrated so we did have some idea of what we were going to be eating. The house specialty was the grilled meat. We had a choice among many kinds and cuts of meet, each of which was to be personally cooked on the grill at the table.

Here’s the inside of the first Japanese restaurant we dined at.  It was very cute and pleasant, though the table was a bit short. At least there were benches to sit down on.

Here’s the meat while cooking on the grill!!! It was really delicious, especially because it was soaked in this mysterious sauce!!! The picture doesn’t show the burning coals under the grill, but trust me it was HOT and the meat didn’t take much time to be ready.

After the great hearty meal of meat we were thirsty despite the free water we got at the restaurant. We stopped at a drink vending machine. In Japan they’re everywhere and they’re filled with whatewer kind of drink you might want. Most of them are good and all of them were very cheap at around 120 yen (less than 1 euro) each. I was shocked when I saw that one price was modified from 130 to 120 yen!! Its incredible, they lower their prices while we do the opposite!! ^^

This is Yuki while buying a bottle of Grape Fanta from a vending (veeeeery good). All of them worked perfectly and not one of them bore signs of vandalism.  In Italy that’s impossible.

In the higher section you can see many kinds of coffee and cola.

On the way back to our Hotel we found a Manekineko just outside of a restaurant. Close to it the was a menu with the prices. Obviously I couldn’t keep myself from taking a picture of it.
Manekineko greets the customers of the restourant^^

Even if it was quite early we were feeling exhausted from the llong trip so we went to sleep. We asked to have breakfast at 8 am. The next day, after our beds were taken away and crammed in the wardrobe, the table was back to his usual place and the breakfast was served. I never thought that the Japanese could eat so much in the first hours of the morning!! We had rice, salty vegetables, fish, omelettes, miso soup, etc.

Wooo, our first Japanese breakfast!!! The pink cubes were used to boil the tofu, inside the soy, cheese was floating with vegetables and mushrooms.

Everything was delicious and in the end we were so filled that we didn’t need to eat anything else until dinner!!  Afterwards, we found a covered street that was obviously some kind of market. Both on the right and the left there were plently of fresh food shops: meat, fish vegetables and other mysterious things that we couldn’t identify. At the end of this street we saw a big stone torii that was there to announce the presence of a shinto temple nearby. The torii is a portal that has the function of purifying the people who enter the temple.

The Torii was huge and a Shimenawa, the big rope with the paper garland, was on it. As you can see, the torii touches the walls of the nearby structures; from far away you can see the lanterns and the altar of the temple.

Here there are the lanterns and the now-closer altar. In this little temple we found two rather disquieting figures… but we’ll touch on them later.

The belivers, purified from the torii, offer some money through a big grate just before the altar. Afterwards, they ring the big bell with the rope bound to it. In the end they clap their hands twice and pray. On the left there was an aquarium with two “whales” inside…

Carps or whales?!? They were really HUGE carp and swimming in the little aquarium on the left of the altar. I can’t even fathom how delicious they could be *ç* . Though… It’s probably better not to think about it or I would be blasphemous.

Maybe the resized picture can’t show their size at best, but I grant you that they were big. Really big. The second disturbing thing was an Omikuji dispenser. The omikuji are some kind of divine prediction, the one I took was of the “seven luck deities”. I’m still translating the divination, though once obtained I had to link it to a rope that was along a tiny street on the side of the temple. Close to that spot there was another altar, very little and finely red painted. It also had this ceremonial rope to give the offers and call the god, etc etc.
It was fine, but we had much greater projects….

Well that’s all! See you in the nex Article!

Bye-bye!

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Our trip began as we left Venice on the 20th of August, 2007. Once we arrived at the airport we had to wait in line to check in.  An incredible amount of people were barricaded in front of the check-in point of the Alitalia and it was very hard to move forward. After 2 hours of agonizing boredom we were finally about to check-in when two men ahead of us began a dispute about who was first. One of them was of another country so racism, CEE and human rights took a part of the altercation. Our trip really started well, huh… °_°

Once we’d checked in we are finally set free of our heavy bags, and were sure to get them back in Japan.
We went from Venice to Milan in a MCDONNEL DOUGLAS MD-82, from there we reached the Kansai airport of Osaka with a BOEING 777-200.
Our first flyght was awfully late…. Once in Milan we ran for the next airplain, which was also late…. In an elevator we met a couple that was also going to Osaka: they assured us that our luggage was lost due to the late flight and the Alitalia service. We kept hoping and took the airplane.
The Boeing leaving from Milan reached an altitude of 11.000 meters and a speed of 1000Km/h; the outside temperature was of -55°C!
The 12 flight hours was quite good except for some turbulence. Each seat was equipped with a little screen and a remote control to watch movies, listen to music and play games. We also had a Japanese lunch that wasn’t bad, obviously the food we had in Japan was quite better.

Wooooo!!! Here is the picture of the Boeing’s wing I secretly took once it reached it’s top altitude

After 12 hours we could finally see the Japanese coasts!! Finally!!!

The landing was good and we were finally in Japan!!  I couldn’t believe it!!! We just had to take our luggage and go to the hotel to get some rest. We moved to the baggage carousel… and… and…. AAAAHHHHHHH!! Our bags weren’t theeeeere!!! Vanished !!! Just great! Being in Japan witho nothing to dress with…. very bad. We find the lost luggage office and with Japanese and english we managed to make them understand what was going on; we filled some forms and they told us they would let us know about our bags when they found anything.

After a brief trip we reached Kyoto. It’s such a wonderful city. The streets are all perpendicular each other so it was quite easy to move around. Once we got to the hotel we found that they aready knew of our luggage problem and a lady dressed with a kimono walked with us to our room. There she had a little chit-chat about the Japanese customs and the Ryokan rules: we talked a bit in english and a bit in Japanese. The very kind lady also treated us with a little sweet, so gooods!!! Thought they tasted a bit of cinnamon…. (Ryu knows why I specify… ghe ghe ghe) The room was quite large and we used it to sleep and have breakfast, right: we had room service !!!

After a break we went out to take a look around and eat something. When we come back the room was already set for the night: the futon was very comfortable and the bathroom was also good. There was even a hypertech toilet! Mostly, I apreciated the warmened seat. AAahhh what a unique feeling to sit down and not feel the chilly bite of the plastic… wtew^^”

The room from another side, with a good sight of the tatami, absolutely forbidden to enter with your shoes!!

And here it is changed for the night with the soft futon laid on the tatami

well, with this picture I close the first article about our trip to Japan, see you at the next time!!

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Here all the details

In the JR station of Shinjuku there’s a blackboard where people use to post notes and announces: it became famous enough to be mentioned in many movies and manga comics (City Hunter by Tsukasa Hojo).

The most futuristic cityscape in Tokyo can be admired from the exit of this station: on the West side the magnificent Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices – an impressive group of buildings made by Tange Kenzao -stands out among many skyscrapers.

On the East side many malls, restaurants, boutiques, neon lights, hostess’ and ambiguous strip-tease clubs, and parks too – like the Shinjuku Gyoen, one of the biggest in town – give a whole different impression of the town.

The second one is probably one of the most famous crossroads in the world, and it is known for its bright and young commercial life. The cityscape is characterized by huge screens put on every building, many different restaurants, shops and love hotels. The majority of the young and fashion Japanese people can be certainly found in Shibuya, making the neighbour look more colourful and very typical. During the weekends, it almost seems that only young under 25 people walk down those crowded streets.

Shibuya – photo credit © by /\ltus

Shinjuku Itineraries East

A quiet and modest temple can be found almost by chance among the skyscrapers in Shinjuku. The Hanazono-jinja (tel:3200-3093; getting there: Marunouchi line to Shinjuku-sanchome, exits B3 and B5) is very nice to be visited at night, because of the lights inside it, but it works perfectly as escape from the squalor of Kabukichō. On Sundays, the temple hosts a flea market (open 8am – 4pm), the easiest way to find antiquities and miscellanies.

Hanazono-jinja – photo credit © by /\ltus

You may have a walk to “Shinjuku Gyoen” (tel.3350-0151;prices: adult ¥ 200, under 15 years ¥ 50, free for under 6; open: 9am – 4.30pm, Tuesday-Sunday; getting there: Marunouchi line to Shinjuku Gyoenmae, exit 1). You may also like a walk in direction South-East from the centre of Shinjuku: this zone belonged to the imperial estates before, as an agrarian research institute.
Shinjuku Gyoen is the huge park, showing an extraordinary variety of plants. If you are lucky enough to get there in the Hanami period, i.e. the cherry trees blooming, an impressive and unforgettable vision will meet your eyes. The western gardens are worth visiting too.

Shinjuku Itineraries West

If you like great heights you shouldn’t miss the skyscrapers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices (Tokyo Tocho; tel: 5321-1111; free entrance; open: 9.30am – 11pm, Tuesday-Sunday; getting there: Toei Oedo line to Tochomae, exit A4), the highest group of buildings in Tokyo. To find this huge building you’ll have to walk a few minutes from the West exit of Shinjuku. From the free viewpoint (202m high, from the 45th floor) you can see mount Fuji in winter. Certainly you’ll witness an extraordinary landscape from such great heights, since the complex symmetry of the buildings almost reminds a microchip. Taking photos is a must!

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices – photo credit © by ertaipt

The Shinjuku NS Building interiors are beautiful too (free entrance; open 11-12am, getting there: Toei Oedo line to Tochomae, exit A2). This isn’t the highest skyscraper in Tokyo, but its architecture is very peculiar and suggestive: in fact, the interior is a huge empty space enlightened by he sunlight through the glass ceiling. In the main hall there’s the biggest pendulum of the world, a Seiko 29m tall.

Shinjuku NS Building – photo credit © by kata49

Shibuya Itineraries

You can’t miss the statue of Hachiko, a dog whose story touched so much Japanese people to make a monument to remember it. About in 1920, Hidesamuroh Ueno – professor at the Tokyo university – had an Akita dog that used to go to the station with him everyday, waiting for his return every night. In 1925 the professor died because of an heart failure, but Hachiko kept on waiting at the station every evening for eleven years, until he died too. To celebrate his bondless loyalty to his master, Japanese people made a statue for him.

Hachiko – photo credit by nanoda.com

Two important museums in Shibuya are the Tobacco and Salt Museum (tel: 3476-2041; prices: adult ¥ 100, children ¥ 50; open: 10am-6pm, Tuesday-Sunday; getting there: JR Yamanote line to Shibuya, Hachiko’s exit) and the Tepco Electric Energy Museum (tel: 3477-1191; open: 10am-6pm, Thursday-Tuesday, getting there: JR Yamanote line to Shibuya, Hachiko’s exit).

The first one displays interesting items to show how the production of tobacco and salt worked in Japan before the modern age, the second one offers a really big exhibition (seven floors) concerning every aspect of electricity.

Tepco Electric Energy Museum – photo credit © by ‘pijn

Having fun in Shinjuku

Here is where all the shopping malls Isetan are, a true appeal for the young and chic people from abroad and Japan itself. Many international brands are sold over the eight floors, that are considered like a launch spot in Japan for the new ones (getting there: Shinjuku Sanchome station, lines: Marunouchi or Shinjuku, Exits: B3-B5).

Shinjuku Neon lights – photo credit © by SBA73

And many other way of entertainment too, like clubs, restaurants and games rooms where Japanese people use to play Pachinko, the most popular game that works like an easier flipper.

In the neighbour called Kabukichō, the most famous red-light district in Tokyo, you can find many soaplands (i.e. massage centre), love hotels, peep shows, pink cabarets and strip-tease clubs, but it can be a simple walking place too; in fact, besides the entertainments concerning sex many “normal” clubs and shops can also be found, like cinemas and nice restaurants.

Kabukicho – photo credit © by lefthandrotation

If you’d like something to drink, you may explore Golden Gai alleys. This is one of the most interesting places in whole Shinjuku, often shown in anime too, with many clubs put one next to the other to create a decadent atmosphere, somehow intellectual and peculiar ways of having fun for the most uninhibited tourists. If you’re lucky, you could even meet popular journalists, writers and directors.

Anime girls – photo credit © by colodio

Having fun in Shibuya

Anime and manga lovers can’t miss the Mandrake (tel: 3477-077; site: www.mandrake.co.jp; situated on B2 floor in the Shibuya Beam Bulding; open: 12am-8pm; getting there: JR Yamanote line to Shibuya, Hachiko’s exit). Here almost the whole collection of new manga comics can be found, and also some interesting shows with baby actors featuring anime characters.

Mandarake Anime and Manga Store – photo credit © by ikuda

Not much further, that is to say next to the Shibuya station of the Ginza and Hanzomon subways, there’s the homonymous district usually known as “sakariba”, the entertainment neighbour.

The best boutiques and shopping malls have been placed in the zone between the North-West exit of the station and the Yoyoji park: the Tokyu Department Store (2-24-1, Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku – Site: www.tokyu-dept.co.jp), the Seibu with its fashion boutiques distributed over nine floors (the last one is dedicated to the restaurants) and Parco, a group of many buildings for shopping.

In this district you can’t miss the Shibuya 109 (getting there: Shibuya station, Hachiko’s exit). The 109 is a big shopping mall dedicated to fashion for girls mostly. It was opened in 1979, hosts about one hundred fashion and gadgets stores, and it’s always crowded since it is popular thanks to the medias and is situated very close to the Shibuya station.

Shibuya 109 – photo credit © by deus-ex-machina

Shibuya also offers many nocturnal attractions. The people of the night can find nice and alive clubs like the Womb disco (tel: 5459-0039; site: www.womb.co.jp; price: ¥ 1500-4000; open: 8pm-till late; getting there: JR Yamanote line, Hachiko’s exit), with House, Techno and Drum ‘n’ Bass music, and many other ones on the Dogenzaka, each one with its own style and full of life, like magic synergies. But be careful, don’t get lost in some love-hotel!

Other informations about Tokyo districts can be found in our Tokyo Guide.

Typical specialities in Shinjuku

This district offers many typical and tasteful Japanese dishes. One of the most popular, the ramen (often presented in anime and manga, and it is Naruto’s favourite too!) is offered at the Keika Kumamoto Ramen (tel: 3354-4591; meal ¥ 800; getting there: Marunouchi and Toei Shinjuku lines to Shinjuko-sanchome, C4 exit), where the chashumen can also be eaten (ramen with roast pork, ¥ 830).

You may also like a nice Sukiyaki (main ingredients are thin meat slices, tofu, ito konnyaku, negi, Chinese cabbage and enoki mushrooms slowly boiled) or a tasty Shabu-shabu (very thin veal or pork slices boiled on the customer’s table in a soft broth, usually served with special sauces): look for these dishes at the Ibuki (tel: 3352-4787; sukiyaki dish ¥ 2205; shabu-shabu dish ¥ 2970; open 5am-11.30pm; info: English written menu; getting there: JR Yamanote line to Shinjuku, East exit), you’ll find a comfy place with many foreigners.

Typical specialities in Shibuya

The majority of restaurants in Shibuya don’t offer typical Japanese menu, except for Kushinobo (tel: 3496-8978; location: 5th floor in the J&R Bldg; price: starting from ¥ 1000; open: lunch and dinner; info: English written menu; getting there: JR Yamanote line to Shibuya, Hachiko’s exit) where you’d like to taste the kushi-katsu (pork and onion fried skewers).

Hotels in Shinjuku

There are a lot of hotel in Shinjuku, from cheap ones to very luxurious ones. We have made a list of Sjinjuku hotels.

Hotels in Shibuya

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