Tokyo day 11

We arrived at our forth and last hotel.
This is a special one, it is the Wired Hotel Asakusa.
For any of you who willing to visit Tokyo, I would recommend to stay at least some days in this hotel. The rooms are like you want your perfect apartment to be, all the details, the design and the architecture is special for a hotel, and the officials are young students with good english and nice asshole personalities...hard to find in Japan I guess.

On the way to Tokyo, Mt. Fuji took off his fog cape. Stil hard to shoot at 320 km/h...

Kyoto day 11 / Fushimi Inari - Taisha & back to Tokyo

Fushimi Inari - Taisha is a sacred hill with its path to the top framed by thousands of Torii, gates to pass through. You see them at all of the shinto shrines.

We tried to be there as early in the morning as possible, but we always stay up late at night and try to process the day, so we don't loose a day of going out and explore.

This first picture shows the Torii's uphill view. They are painted with a orange we would associate with street workers in Austria, not that nice.

The next picture shows the downhill view of the gates with the name of the sponsor and his wish engraved.

This is a sacred site, but street art is present. Can you find my stickers?

F I R E !

I did notice these red buckets of water everywhere. I thought they are some kind of first aid buckets for small fires and they are!

Ahhh, is it a dog, is it a cat or his inbreeded son? Who knows...

After a small lunch with Redbull and Onigiri (Pyramiden) the Shinkansen brings us strait back to Tokyo in about 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Kyoto day 10 / Sanjusangen-do Temple

The next site was the Sanjusangen-do Temple. In the inside, which is very impressive with its over 1000 hand carved buddha statues, taking pictures is prohibited.
The hall it self is that long that it was a measurement unit for a long time. Now they have the metric system, thank god for that. But they drive on the wrong side of the road.

The best thing, on the way we passed this Porsche 356 Speedster. He smiles at you because he knows that you can't afford him.

The temple, yes.
Archery competitions are held there. They had to remove some of the wooden beams over time because they where crushed by arrows, thousands of arrows. These competitions are also very popular with woman. The winner gets them all - bad joke.

Exterior shots:

And finally a sewage runoff with its proper facial expression, AAAAHHHHHGGGG!

Kyoto day 10 / Arashiyama bamboo forest

We are at day ten. This is by far the most stressful but beautiful vacation if have ever experienced. So much to see and so little time.

To see the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest without to much tourists always blocking your way is to get up very early ~0600, eat no breakfast at your hotel (would take to much time) and than get on the train and change at the right stops.
We did make it ~0930 there, but this was a bit too late. The whole site was just filling with people.
It is ok, I will find a spot to take a picture without having some random dude with his sweatpants on it.
These tourists man, they just have no style...
And I did.

Timber!

Next stop, a temple. Who would have guessed that?

Kyoto day 9 / just browsing & beer

On day nine we tried for once the breakfast at our hotel. Not good enough for ¥ 2200.

The whole day was just walking up and down the streets of Kyoto and browse all the nice little stores. There are quite a few vintage stores near our base, but the prices are well over my budget and all the cloth are american style cloth.
I'm in Japan for god sake, I don't like to by any american crap for too much Yen!

A typical shopping street looks like this:

For lunch we visited the Spring Valley Brewery in the center of Kyoto. We had a perfect grilled swordfish with fries on the side and tasted us through their beer assortment. All the beers were good and well over 5%. Dizzy.

I might get a vintage kimono tomorrow...

Kyoto day 8 / sushi and sleeping

Our hotel in Kyoto is the Royal Park Hotel The Kyoto. Our room is on the sixth floor (616) with the window to one of the main streets.

Did I tell you that in Japan there is no ground floor. They count from one. To get the equivalent floor in our system you have to subtract one.
Your room is on the fifth floor then? Yes.

It was late, ~2130, when we arrived in Kyoto and our stomachs where empty. So we looked out for a good sushi place and found one. When we arrived there, we had to put our name and the number of persons on a list.
I wrote "SEINFELD, 2" and the guy yelled "seinfeld, two", hilarious!

After a few good plates of sushi and a cold beer, back to the hotel and sleep well for tomorrow.

Mt. Fuji to Kyoto / Shinkansen

After hiking all day in the woods near Mt. Fuji, we took the train to Kyoto. It was a ~4 and a half hour ride with 4 changes on the way.
This was my first ride with one of the bullet trains here in Japan called Shinkansen.
The best way to describe it is:
It is like traveling with plane, but never leaving the ground.

The first fifteen minutes I was a bit see sick but than I relaxed and enjoyed the smooth ride with ~320km/h.

Next stop Kyoto...

Mt. Fuji day 7 + 8 / Spa hotel & Aokigahra forest

We got to Mt. Fuji by train. It was a ~3 hour journey with 3 changes on the way.

We stayed at the Sakura-an Kawaguchiko Hotel and Spa. The hotel was very nice and the best thing is that you are not allowed with shoes in the house. We could have used the spa, but it is for non tattooed people only - sit down and relax.

Day eight. Do you know the Aokigahara forest at the foot of Mt. Fuji?

The Aokigahara forest is also known as Suicide forest. Here is a short documentation about it:

We went there hiking all day.

There where no corps found during our hiking in Aokigahara forest!

These woods are as silent as you can imagine. Silvia and I went there early in the morning and as we passed through the forest we where almost the whole time for ourselfs, goose bumps.

Tokyo to Mt. Fuji / Japan Rail pass & EKI

On day seven we are going to Mt. Fuji by train.

First thing in the morning is to activate our Japan Rail Pass for the next seven days.

First thing after activating the JRP is, to send some compiled envelopes to Austria. You know when you get one, when you get one ;-)

Did you know that the JR Lines are having stamps or EKI, at I think ~77 of their stations only in Tokyo to collect.

I have an notebook with me just for that reason and I like to collect things that are fun!

Next stop: Mt.Fuji...

Tokyo day six / Best ramen in town

The plan was to go to Nikko for a day, but the weather, money issues and our body's said - no thanks!

Let me now tell you about the troubles Silvia is facing with the ERSTE Bank. I don't like them for many reasons, but one has been their lag of support for the problem Silvia is facing here in Japan.

She just won't get money from her bank card.

Me on the other hand, a customer of an other big Austrian bank, has no problems to get money with my bank card. Just imagine you in Japan without the chance to get money...

Sorry but that is just bullshit!

Now to something good. We discovered one of the best and cheapest ramen restaurant in the district of Asakusa, here.

And now, a random picture of a panda riding a mail box:

Tokyo day 5 / shopping

Day five was all about shopping. Take the money and shut the fuck up!
I had a list in my back pack and I followed the list without exceptions. Just buy what you need. 9122km is not that far, that you can come back and get the thing you wanted but didn't buy because it wasn't on your shopping list!

We traveled the path of the last days, Asakusa - Ueno - Akihabara - Ginza and back, to full fill our need to buy.

I finally got my knife. It is a three layer ,soft steel ,high carbon steel, soft steel, NIKIRI from KAMATA and it has my name in katakana engraved. The engraving service was free of charge.

I bought some funny stuff, some toys and other things you won't get in Europe. I also bought the stuff wich comes to some of you in an envelope.

Silvia got this amazing watch from EPSON called smart canvas, Hello Kitty Edition, can only be sold in Japan. It is basically a kindle type screen on your wrist with a SEIKO movement.
Just look it up here.

Tokyo day 4 / Odaiba

Day four will be an all day experience an the island of Odaiba, an artificial island in the Tokyo bay.
To get there you should take the self driving train, Yurikamome, over the Rainbow Bridge. Be sure to sit in the first row of the first wagon!
Eg Aphex Twin knows how to do it:

On the island of Odaiba we visited the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan). There you will see some robots (ASIMO) and other fancy new technologies:

The most interesting piece for me, as a dirt shark, was this schematic layout for the toilet:

After the museum we visited the place where I ate the best pizza in my live, the Aqua City shopping mall. We found the pizza place, but the pizza wasn't that good anymore after almost eight years :-(

The main reason Silvia wanted to get to Odaiba is the Rainbow Bridge at night:

The day we have been there, there was a Rallye Cross taking place in the parking lot. These Japanese guys are all into their cars. Why does the Austrian government destroy car culture?!

Tokyo day 3 / Ginza, Hamarikyu Park & imperial place

We started this third day with a visit of the biggest fish market on the planet, the Tsukiji Fish Market. We got there ~1000, too late, the fish was almost all gone. If you wont to see some action you have to be there before 0600...maybe 2022.

To restore our olfactorius system, we headed to the nearest park, Hamarikyu park in Ginza. Ginza is the first district of Tokyo. The parks in Tokyo are a must see - all of them.
Enjoy some pictures of the park:

After the park I found another promising knife shop on site, it was located in a back alley, with a two person lift in the ninth floor - and it was closed. No knife for you!
Next stop, the imperial place in central Tokyo:

You can't get nearer and there are thousands of Chinese people. Did I mention the shear amount of Chinese people here in Tokyo?! As I remember the last time I didn't see more than a view, but now they are everywhere and I can't stand them!
To end the day and calm a bit down we got some sweet fishes at our local sweet fish dealer.

Two premium cream fishes for me...

Tokyo day 2 / Shinjuku

A short walk from the Meiji shrine to the center of Shinjuku and you are in a different world.
This is another one of the good qualities of Tokyo, there is always a place to settle between the swarming and skyscrapers.

At the outer rim of the Shinjuku center we found some nice shops. I bought a 7" single of a Japanese artist called The pitchshifters. I couldn't listen to it but I assume it is some kind of electro avantgarde, I found a picture of the artist with a KORG MS-20 ;-)

I read that there is a nice shop with vintage synthesizers located in Shinjuku.
I will find this shop at all costs.
The addresses are all in Japanese and I can't read them. All the buildings have at least five to six floors and in every floor there is a different shop.
I found the address of the shop, so I thought, but when I climbed the fire ladder and opened up the backdoor of the sixth floor, the only one not locked, I didn't find a synth shop, instead I found a game development studio with one american guy sitting on a mac and editing some video scenes.
When I asked him for a synth shop he had no idea. But he was nice, we talked a bit and he helped me find this mysterious shop of synths. Together we figured out that the shop I was looking for is on the other side of the street in the ninth floor...I went there and it was awesome!

We then had some lunch and walked to Cat street, a hipstreet with cool stores for hip gals and guys ;-) I didn't buy a thing but I found a want to have Yves Sant Laurent pair of glasses, Buddy Holly style!

We walked through Cat street until it was dark and then we drove back to the hotel and day two was over...

Tokyo day 2 / Meiji shrine

The first shrine to visit is the Meiji shrine located in Shinjuku. Shinjuku is the seventh district (Neubau) of Tokyo.
At this time I had to take a shit, in the morning it wont get going...Jetlag?
The next best thing in Japan are the public toilets located everywhere and clean as I would like them to be at work. No picture of that, but the location of the hole in the floor:

I didn't take a pic from the shrine itself, come and see it yourself, but I took some nice detail shots:

Next - let's see what Shinjuku has to offer...

Tokyo day 2 / Edo-Tokyo museum

I'd like to buy a knife here in Tokyo. So my search for a nice hand made Nikiri begins.

Luckily Asakasa is home of some of the best knife shops in Tokyo. I visited almost all of them but found nothing that caught my attention...maybe next time.
After shopping for steel, lets see how the knife and sword tradition evolved. The best place to learn about this topic is the Edo-Tokyo museum.
In the Edo-Tokyo museum, amongst other things, they have build a small version of edo (tokyo's old name):

Here you can see one of the first sushi bars:

New this time is that they expended the exhibition with modern history. Here is a prospect from the 60ties:

...or these pagers from the 90ties:

After spending a half day indoors, lets head out to one of the shinto shrines...

Tokyo day 1 / Akihabara

After only five floors of toys and stuff we used our personalized PASMO cards to take the GINZA line from UENO to Akihabara.

Akihabara is one of my favorite parts of town. I love to look through thousands of small bags with random stuff in them. These used GACHAPON shops are time killers, especially when you are looking for pins like I do.
As some of you might know I am collecting these email pins ever since before the last Japan visit.
We visited the usual places in A. like: Softmap, LAOX and of course Super potato.
Now it is time for the first sushi in Japan!
Before the last Japan visit I tried my first sashimi for preparation, I wasn't a big fan of sushi at that time. But as I tried the first sushi in Tokyo I was hooked. To find a good sushi bar is not that hard in this town, but to find an affordable is not that easy. We found one and I ate six plates a two pieces =~ 27€.
We spent almost the whole rest of the first day to search through all the nice shops.
At the end I  found some nice pins and bought all of them ;-)