Back to Tokyo via Kyoto

Our holiday was creeping towards its end, sadly, I mused as I watched the landscaped fly by on the Kyoto-bound Shinkansen... Still a couple of days to enjoy Japan, though!

We arrived in Kyoto (needless to say, on time), and made our way to the hotel, conveniently located near the main train station. As we got to the hotel, we had this odd feeling in our guts, kind of like cultural shock. Tourists, plenty of them! After almost a week in peaceful Kyushu, it was very strange to turn up at this hotel, filled with foreign tourists. This may sound a bit hypocritical (since we, obviously, were also tourists), but we almost felt disappointed, brought back to reality... One shouldn't be surprised of course, Kyoto is much more touristy than Tokyo, everybody who visits Japan comes here (with good reason, of course). Anyway, after an easy check-in (the good thing with being in Kyoto is that people speak English!), and dropping off our luggage, we hit the road. We had a rendez-vous with our dear friends Aude and Magaye (who were visiting Japan at the same time as us - fancy that eh?) in Gion.

After a brief ride on the metro we arrived in Gion (the old geisha district - which today has mostly been transformed into a shopping district), and managed to hoock up with Aude and Magaye (who were biking around Kyoto). We celebrated the happy reunion by having a drink, naturally! They had just arrived in Japan, but seemed already to be rather enthralled by this fascinating country.

Anyways, our stomachs were grumbling by now, so we decided to set about looking for a restaurant. We crossed the river to the area around Ponto-cho (a traditional district of Kyoto, where one can still find geishas today, apparently). We tried to find a couple of restaurants in our guide books, but gave up after a while, and just picked a restaurant more or less by random (it has worked very well for us so far). An excellent choice - we were once again treated to an absolutely delishous meal for a mear 12 Euros each (the waiter described the meal as "Japanese appetizers" - it was more like a set menu).

After our meal, we walked around for a bit in the main street of Ponto-cho - a place where the "old Kyoto atmosphere" is still well present. This is the area of Kyoto where geishas and maikos (apprentice geishas) can still be found - in fact I think we saw a few, discretely leaving a house in the street with some clients. At least that's what I like to imagine (there are a quite a few fake ones about as well, apparently). Plenty of discrete establishments in this street, where I reckon tourists like us would have a hard time gaining entry... ;-) We finished off the evening with a drink in an English pub. Yes, a bit sad, I suppose...

The next day, we met up early-ish, to do a bit of visiting, before me and Mathilde had to catch our train to Tokyo. We started by visiting the twin temples Higashi Hongan-ji and Nishi Hongan-ji, located near the train station. The temples are the main temples of the main branches of Shin-Buddhism (there was originally just one temple - the "split" was done by Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in order to reduce the influence of the sect). The temples are quite similar, with the second and older one we visited (Nishi Hongan-ji) being the more impressive one. It is actually a UNESCO world heritage site.

The mandatory temple-visiting out of the way (the thought of visiting Kyoto without going to at least one temple is simply inconceivable!), we headed down to Nishiki, which is the covered food market of Kyoto. My kind of place! What you can't buy here food-wise, just ain't worth buying, I reckon. And what's best, a lot of the merchants sell nice little tasters/munchies for quite reasonable prices. Lunch-time was approaching, so we indulged ourselves a little bit ;-)

There is a nice shrine just next to the market - Nishiki Temmangu Shrine. Apparently, a scholar and poet, Sugawara Michizane, is worshipped here as a god of wisdom, study, good business. Interesting indeed ? At any rate, I rather liked this little, intimate shrine. We finished our visit in Tokyo with lunch in a noodle bar in the covered market. It was nice, but a bit expensive, we thought. I suppose we were in a rather touristy place...

Time for me and Mathilde to head back to Tokyo then, after saying our emotional goodbyes to Aude and Magaye. After a train journey that included a sighting of Mount Fuji, we arrived in Tokyo main station in the evening. After a fair bit of hiking, we eventually arrived at the dubiously named "Smile Hotel" (the place was a bit dodgy as well, to be honest!), located in the Asakusa district. After checking in and dropping of our stuff in the our room, we hit the streets to hunt for some food. We put our trust in our guide book, and ate in a traditional local eatery, which apparently dates to the Edo-era. I got the impression we were the first tourists to ever show up at the place, but we had no complaints about the food (no we can also say we've been to a Japanese steak house!).

After dinner, we decided to explore Asakusa by night a bit. It's obviously not a party district, and wasn't very lively, but we quite liked the place, anyway. It's got a nice working-class feel to it. And then there is Senso-ji, of course. This Buddhist temple was the first one we visited on our first trip to Japan, and remains our famous temple in Tokyo. It's very nice and atmospheric by night as well, as we witnessed tonight. After a quick stroll along the riverside (checking out the Tokyo Sky Tree across the river - the highest structure in Tokyo), we headed back to our hotel.

After a good night's sleep, we got up, ready for our last day in Japan (snif). We quickly checked out of our hotel, and made our way to downtown Asakusa, where we eventually managed to locate our accomodation for the coming night - a Capsule Hotel. Another one of those Japanese experiences that just has to be tried - more about that later. Having "checked in" (which basically amounted to putting our bags in a locker - there are no rooms as such in capsule hotels), we jumped on the metro train down to Shibuya.

Shibuya is one of the main districts in Tokyo for shopping, night-life and other important modern-day activities (it's also a well-known fashion district, apparently). There is also the famous Shibuya crossing, made famous by the film Lost in Translation.

It's a"scramble crossing", which stops all vehicule traffic, allowing pedestrians to filter across the crossing from all directions. We figured that the Starbucks overlooking the crossing was a pretty good place to have breakfast. The crossing wasn't at its busiest, but, you know, it's one of those Tokyo things to do ;-).

After a bit of "depato shopping" in Shibuya, we made our way to Omotosando, that Tokyiote version of the Champs-Elysee. We found a nice place, Oriental Bazaar, for souvenir shopping there, where we purchased yukatans and some other nice stuff. Our shopping spree done, we made our way back to Asakusa, where we had a rather excellent lunch at a random place next to the metro station (again, we were amazed at the value for money...). We spend the rest of the afternoon shopping in Asakusa - there was a department store next to the train station, with plenty of cool stuff to bring home to Europe...

For the evening, our dear friend Matsuoka had planned a Tokyo night cruise with dinner for us. We met up in a bar at Ginza for a couple of pre-cruise beers, after which we made our way down to the river, from where we were catching the boat. I am normally not a big fan of these types of cruises (to me, they tend to be overpriced, the food tends to be bad, and they cram loads of people onto the boat), but given that we haven't had a single bad meal in Japan so far, we weren't overly worried. And I can confirm that it was indeed a very nice experience. The food was excellent, and the unlimited alcohol service (sake, beer and other stronger stuff) was nothing to be frowned upon either! (me and Matsuoka in particular made good use of that service).

After the cruise, Matsuoka joined us in Asakusa for a couple of drinks more in a nice little Izakaya. (and naturally a couple of sashimi - drinks usually come with snacks in Japan). A very nice to end an unforgettable Japanese holiday. After emotional (well, quite stoic actually, Matsuoka is Japanese, after all) goodbyes, we made our way to our capsule hotel.

So, as I've already mentioned, we spent our last night in Japan in a capsule hotel, another of those Japan experiences we wanted to try out. A capsule hotel is a cheap option for salary men who miss their last train home (perhaps due to having had a drink too many?). Basically you pay for a capsule, which basically contains a bed (as well as a TV and a radio, and an alarm you can set). A locker, a towel, slippers and a yukatan are also provided (along with a tooth brush). One could see it as the Japanese version of a youth hostel dormitory. Not a bad concept, actually! And pretty good value for money, especially if you travel on your own (we paid about 20 Euros per person for our  capsules).

So, a very Japanese experience to end our holiday, then... And as you have probably gathered if you've read the last few entries of my blog, a quite simply unforgettable one. Our last trip to Japan, a couple of years ago, left us both yearning to come back. And I have to say that my this second trip has, if anything, increased my fascination for this truly unique country. We will be back, that's for sure!

A couple of more days in Kyushu

When we arrived in Kumamoto on the Shinkansen (on time, naturally), we were a bit dismayed to see the weather had taken a turn for the worse - grey skies and rain expected instead of the generally present sunshine we'd gotten used to over the last few days. Our original plan had been to rent a car in Kumamoto upon arrival, and head to Aso-san (a volcano in the middle of Kyushu) and Kurokawa Onsen (where we were spending the night) as soon as possible. But bearing in mind the weather, we decided to spend the morning visiting Kumamoto instead, and head straight to Kurokawa Onsen (and visit Aso-san the following day instead).

After getting our rental car sorted out, we jumped on the tramway and made our way to the main attraction of Kumamoto - the castle. Kumamoto-jo, as it is known in Japanese, is considered one of the three most beautiful castles in Japan (together with Himeji-jo, which we visited on our last trip to Japan) - and it is indeed a rather stunning castle! The castle dates back to the 15th century, but was badly damaged during the Satsuma revolt in 1877. The castle keep was almost completely rebuilt in 1960, in concrete (although the original wooden beams were kept - so it looks pretty authentic from the outside). The impressive castle walls, and 13 other structures, remain in their original form. We spent a good couple of hours walking around the keep and the castle grounds, very impressed indeed.

The interior of the keep itself is not that interesting - most of the exhibition info is only in Japanese, but the views from the top are pretty impressive. The most interesting building is the reconstructed (using original construction methods) Honmaru Goten Palace (the original building was unfortunately completely destroyed) - this was the place where the Daimyo used to receive guests. The Uto turret (one of the original buildings that survived the events in 1877) was also pretty cool...

After a quick noodle lunch at the train station, we picked up our car, and headed towards Aso-san and Kurokawa Onsen. The weather was pretty miserable, so we stuck to our original plan and headed straight for Kurokawa Onsen (where we were planning to spend the night), making a brief stop at Aso Shrine. It is one of the most important shrines in Kyushu - the entrance gate is actually one of the three largest of its type in Japan! I (Mathilde was too put off by the rain to join me for the visit!) was rather impressive - but I am sure I would've appreciated it a bit more if the sun had been out ;-)

Our drive then took us up through some rather nice mountain scenery (again, I think we would've appreciated it more if it hadn't been p***ing down...), until we finally arrived at our Ryokan, located at Ota Onsen, near Kurokawa Onsen (Kurokawa Onsen is one of the most famous places in Japan for Onsen and Ryokan). It was quite appropriately called Silent Forest - here we were indeed in the middle of nature... This Ryokan, as opposed to the one we stayed at in Fukuoka, was a very classy institution indeed! Everything was spot of, from the welcome (we hardly had time to park our car before a guy was there with two umbrellas ready), the check-in, the quick tour of the Ryokan, leading to our room (where our luggage was naturally already waiting for us). Our room (or rather apartment), weas pretty much perfect as well - traditionally Japanese, very tastefully decorated. We had our own private little Onsen in our own little private garden. In short, the place was pretty much perfect!

We had quite little time to spend in our room before our dinner, which was early, as the custom seems to be in Japan. Unlike the other "high-class" Ryokans we'd stayed at (during our last trip to Japan), we had our dinner at a restaurant rather than in our room, which was pretty nice actually (added a bit to the atmosphere of the meal, to see the other people dressed in their yukatans taking in the food). And the meal itself then ? Well, I guess you have noticed I've been quite impressed with the food so far during our trip, and this meal was no doubt the culinary culmination so far. Everything was perfect. Ryokans typically serve Kaiseki cuisine (which is basically a multi-course meal composed of several small dishes - there are plenty of rules about how the meal should be prepared - I suggest you check wikipedia if you are interested in the details ;-), and it is indeed what we were treated to as well. I counted 16 different dishes in our menu (all in Japanese, naturally), and it was all absolutely perfect, as far as I'm concerned. What did we have ? Well, plenty of different fish, plenty of different meat dishes (including raw horse meat - a speciality of Kyushu), plenty of vedgetables. Food is art in Japan - and this meal was a true masterpiece! We probably spent two hours dining, and didn't feel bored for one second...

And nothing better after a tasty meal like that than a bit of Onsen... Sooo relaxing to just lie in the hot water tub, out in the cool evening air... We felt rather zen going to bed that night, I'll tell you that! I started the next day with a bit of onsen as well, and then it was time for the breakfast. Nothing much to say about the breakfast that hasn't been said already - to us it seemed like Kaiseki all over again - although a bit fewer dishes than we'd had for dinner. So pretty much the perfect way to start the day, then! We were quite regretful to check-out of our Ryokan and head towards Aso-san. I have to say that staying at a classy Ryokan like this is something that everybody should try if they come to Japan. It ain't cheap, that's for sure, I wouldn't pay this kind of money for accommodation under normal circumstances, but for me it's a truly wonderful experience, and one that gives a pretty good insight into the Japanese psyche and culture. But, like I said, it can be a bit costly...

We arrived at Aso-san quite early, happy to see the weather was quite dramatically improved from the day before. We drove through Aso town, and headed up to the Aso Volcano museum, a good starting point for hikes in the region. Aso-san, or Mount Aso, is one of the biggest volcanoes on earth - the caldera has a diameter of no less than 25 km. In the centre stand the active volcano peaks, amongst them Mount Nakadake. Mt Nakadake is the only currently active of the five peaks on Mt. Aso, as testified by the smoke coming out of its caldera. Unfortunately, seems that Mt Nakadake was a bit too active on this particular day - the ropeway leading up the caldera was closed... Due to the rather biting winds on Mt. Aso, we didn't feel really fancy a hike either, so we decided just to enjoy the peaks and the scenery from afar this time. A pity!

So we decided to head back to Kumamoto a bit earlier than planned - a good idea it turns out as the weather was pretty much perfect over there. Before making our way to the town centre, stopped at Suizen-ji Jōju-en, one of the most famous daimyo gardens in Japan (a type of garden created by Daimyos during the Edo-period). And indeed, as far as gardens are concerned, it certainly ranks among the prettiest ones I've seen. It's got everything: a nice pond in the middle, a nice little shrine, carps and some cranes. A photographer's dream, in short... There was also a cavalry archery competition on display, so my memory card filled up pretty quickly, I can tell you that...

We spend the rest of the day walking around Kumamoto, and doing a bit of shopping. We finished the day with a nice grilled meat dinner in a restaurant we picked pretty much by random, and then of course a nice little onsen bath for me at our hotel... (it seems that a lot of the hotels in Kyushu at least have their own onsens, a pretty nice feature!)

The next day, the plan was to take the Shinkansen to Kyoto, but we had a few hours to kill before that. So we decided to stroll around a bit more on the Kumamoto castle grounds, now that we could enjoy the place in the sunshine. We also had time to visit Hosokawa Gyobu-tei, which was the residence of the chief retainer of the Hosokawa Gyobu family. A most interesting place to visit, which shows how the samurais lived during the Edo-period. What we found quite interesting is that the interior is not that different to that of a Ryokan, for example. All very tasteful and elegant, and somehow doesn't look at all "old-fashioned" at least to my untrained western eyes ;-)

That brought, sadly, an end to our visit of Kyushu, as we jumped on the Kyoto-bound Shinkansen. Apart from the beautiful nature, the incredible cuisine, what left perhaps the strongest impression on us was the friendliness of the people, and the feeling of being "off the beaten trail" (very few foreign tourists to be seen here...).

"The Naples of Japan"

Our Shinkansen from Fukuoka to Kagoshima arrived, unsurprisingly, on time (I have to mention at this point, though, that our train from Fukuoka to Nagasaki was actually delayed by about 20 minutes - a rather shocking incident!). We hopped on the tramway and made our way to our hotel, rather conveniently located in the centre of town. Kagoshima is the southern-most city in Kyushu, and is known as the "Naples of Japan" (I think the nickname most likely comes from the fact that a volcano, Sakurajima, looms over Kagoshima...). We didn't notice any uncollected rubbish in the streets, at least... ;)

Having checked in at our hotel, we started hunting for a decent restaurant where we could have lunch. Mathilde had found a nice sushi restaurant on the internet before our trip, so we made our way to down to Dolphin Port, a kind of shopping centre near the port, and we did indeed find the sushi place - a revolving sushi bar. I love the concept - just pick what you like off the conveyer belt and eat it. Afterwards, they count the empty plates (which have different colours that indicate the price) and charge you accordingly. Quick, efficient and convenient. And not very expensive either - we paid about 1 euros 50 for a plate with two decent slices of Sashimi with rice. Again, we were quite amazed at how little we paid for such good food.

We dedicated the afternoon to Kagoshima's main tourist attraction - Sengan-en, a magnificent garden located just outside the city. The setting is pretty amazing, there are some mountains behind the gardens, and across the bay, Sakurajima looms high. A pity about the haze, the volcano wasn't very visible. The garden is certainly one of the most magnificent I've seen - the Japanese certainly know there stuff when it comes to gardens. Apart from the gardens, we also attended a guided visit of some of the traditional houses on the grounds (the lady guides are dressed in elegant kimonos, nice touch) - the visit ended with a cup of tea and some cakes - yummie. We also visited the museum next doors before taking the bus back to the town centre.

For dinner, we decided to go for something local, as often, and after consulting our guide books, we decided upon a place specializing in tofu. As often, we really struggled to find a place, but eventually, with the help of some friendly locals, we found the place. As I'm getting accustomed to write on this blog, the place was a real gem. There was basically not a word written in English anywhere, and the staff didn't speak much of it either (something we're starting to get used to with here in Japan...), but they more than made up for it with their friendliness and the delicious food (and again, amazing value for money...). We were kind of like the local attraction as well, we got along fabulously with the other customers (as the picture shows!). I also got the opportunity to try Shōchū, the local eau-de-vie they drink in Kyushu (especially here in Kagoshima).

The next day, we got up early, and headed down to the car rental agency. Yep, time to find out whether that driver's license translation from Tokyo is worth the paper it's printed on... After some communication difficulties, we eventually managed to get our car hired, and got a crash course in using  the GPS (a rather useful gadget in Japan - especially since you can type in a phone number as "address" - a very handy feature for those who don't want to learn to read/write Japanese alphabets!). The driving took a bit of getting used to, since not only the steering wheel is on the "wrong side", but the indicaters and windscreen wipers are also swapped around (needless to say, I kept switching on and off the wipers a lot!).

Our destination for the day was Kirishima national park, located just 80 km or so north of Kagoshima. We made our way to Ebino-Kogen - plateau in the middle of the park that's good for hiking. We did the easy two hour hike that takes in a couple of volcanic peaks (not currently active, thankfully!) as well as no less than three (if I remember correctly) volcanic lake. It was very nice to get out and about in the nature a bit, after what has so far been a quite urban holiday. The hike wasn't too strenuous, just right for us, given that we didn't have all day to spend here. And the views were rather magnificent. We were quite amused to find a huge group of Japanese students at the top of the first peak, all dressed in their identical school uniforms, all having lunch.

Having had our dose of nature, we headed back southwards, towards Ibusuki, which is located just south of Kagoshima, along the southern coast of Kyushu. The main reason for going to Ibusuki is to try the black-sand onsens the place is famous for. The concept is simple, wash yourself, dress up in a Yukatan, walk down to the beach, lie down in a dug up trench, and let one of the ladies working at the onsen cover your body with hot sand. I naturally had to try it - a very pleasant experience! Apparently some people find the experience somewhat claustrophobic - not me. I really enjoyed it!

We finished out trip in Kagoshima with another superb dinner - this time we got to grill our own food! Delicious! We felt a bit sad to leave for Kumamoto the next day, having the distinct feeling we hadn't accommodated Kagoshima the time it deserves. Oh well, there's never enough time to see everything...

Fukoka and Nagasaki

We arrived at Fukuoka (the main city of Kyushu) after a rather relaxed flight, and a somewhat disappointing bento box for lunch (probably the first meal I've had in Japan that's not been good - but then I suppose one shouldn't have too high expectations for a 4 euro bento box bought at the airport). A quick train ride later, we arrived at the main train station, from where it was a short stroll to the Ryokan we were spending two nights at.

Ryokans are traditional Japanese Inns. Normally they are very exclusive institutions that cost rather a lot - this one was a more "regular Ryokan", costing only about 50 Euros a night! Imagine my amazement when I realized that in spite of what to me seemed like a ridiculously low price (especially in a supposedly expensive country like Japan) this Ryokan was the real thing! Meaning that our room was a traditional Japanese one, with a tatami, nice Japanese furniture and all, very nice Yukatans were provided, slippers had to be worn. There was even an onsen (a hot spring bath), albeit a public one! OK, clearly the place was less fancy than the Ryokans we did during our last visit, but still, staying at a place like this is a real Japanese experience at a bargain price!

After setting in, we headed off to explore Fukuoka. It's a rather big city, with over 1 million inhabitants, so we had to make some choices, as we only had half a day to visit the place, basically, due to our tight schedule. We started off with a bit of shrine & temple hopping (this is, after all, Japan. Hard to avoid that...). There was a nice collection of them conveniently located just a few minutes walk from our hotel in a nice little park. Unfortunately, the most famous one, Tocho-ji (with its big wooden Buddha), was closed... We really liked Shofoku-ji, with its ideal setting, surrounded by trees and a calm pond (and local resident cat). It's actually the first Zen temple constructed in Japan. There was also a beautiful Shinto sanctuary called Kushida-jinja in the modern part of town, that we really liked.

The temples and shrine bit out of the way, we stepped back into the modern world by visiting Canal City, the biggest shopping centre in Fukuoka. It is quite a place - probably the most impressive shopping centre I've seen. It really is almost a city within a city - the place is 234,500 square meters of shops, restaurants and other attractions. All in a rather tasteful and zen setting, with a narrow pool (the "canal") running along the length of the shopping centre. We spent quite a while shopping there - I even found a Moomin cafe in one of the shops, if you can imagine that !? (I've not even seen that in Finland, ever...).

There is also a Ramen stadium in Canal City - basically a collection of restaurants serving different types of Ramen. (noodles of Chinese origin - a kind of fast food in Japan. Apparently they were "invented" in Fuokuoka...).

Since it was time to have dinner, we decided to go for that, then. Another interesting, if unspectacular, Japanese culinary experience. One of the other things to do in Fukuoka food-wise is Yatai, or Japanese street food. So naturally, since we came across one of these "mobile stands", we had to try it as well. It's a pretty nice concept, you kind of sit around a counter with other people, and the guy serves his fare - usually grilled meat. Excellent stuff! After a bit more "Fukuoka by night" (it seems to be a pretty happening place, judging by all the drunken "Salary Men" stumbling about in the streets, and into/out of strip joints and hostess bars...

The next day, we hopped on the early train to Nagasaki. Nagasaki is naturally known to most people due to the tragic events that took place on 9th of August 1945, when the American's dropped "Fat Man" (a 4.5 ton atomic bomb) on Nagasaki, with well-known consequences... However, there is much more to Nagasaki than just this tragic event - it's a vibrant city that has made a remarkable recovery, and one with a very interesting history. Nagasaki was in many ways a gateway to the west for the Japanese, since it was the first port that was opened to foreigners in the 16th century.

Hence, it was kind of appropriate for us to start our visit by heading to Glover Garden. The garden got its name from Thomas Glover, a Scottish businessman, who also played an important role in the events of the Meiji restoration that took place in the 19th century (when Imperial rule was restored in Japan, after some centuries of Shogunate rule). It's a beautiful place - both the buildings and the gardens being a kind of fusion between Japanese and European styles... It also gave an interesting insight into a very interesting period of Japanese history. Having a certain appreciation for beer, I noted with interest that Mr. Glover was also the co-founder of the Kirin Brewery.

From Glover Garden, we made our way towards the town centre, after a short visit of the very interesting Confucian shrine next to Glover Garden - interesting since it is said to be the only Confucian shrine built outside of Japan. Perhaps a testament to the power and influence of the big Chinese minority which is present in Nagasaki ? Anyway, the shrine and the attached museum were both very interesting (a pity there were basically no explanations in English, though...). Carrying on with the Chinese theme, we had dinner in the main street of Chinatown. (we tried some Champon, the local noodle dish).

Next, back to more traditional Japanses temples with a visit of Sofuku-ji. This impressive place was also built by the Chinese - although it seemed pretty similar to the Japanese temples we'd seen so far (apparently the red portal leading into the temple is a real model of Ming-era architecture). Most impressive. We carried on crossing Nagasaki, walking by quite a few temples (we were, after all , on Teramachi which means Temple Alley). Unfortunately, we didn't really have time to visit them all, so we carried on to the famous Megane-Bashi (means "spectacles bridge", for obvious reasons).

Of course, no visit to Nagasaki would be complete without going to a rather sad site - that is where the atomic bomb landed on that sad day in 1945. We started in Peace Park, just north of where the bomb struck, which is dominated by a huge Statue of Peace. This appropriately peaceful park also has many monuments donated by various countries (interestingly enough, in particular communist and formerly communist countries) in support of the city's suffering. A quite poignant place to contemplate events of that sad day (kind of appropriate to visit this place now in particular, since the "enlightened leader of North Korea" was also threatening to attack Japan...). We also visited the Point Zero park, where the point the bomb struck is marked by a black pillar. (it actually struck right above the catholic cathedral of Nagasaki - there are still a couple of pieces of the cathedral's wall standing next to the pillar).

We finished of our trip to Nagasaki in a more cheerful manner, by having a rather splendid meal for dinner at a place called Yosso. We went for Shippoku-Ryori, a kind of set menu which is normally served for a group of people (since there were only two of us, we went for the mini version). Another unforgettable experience - we were treated to a very nice selection of dishes for an extremely reasonable price (something like 25 Euros for two persons - the same would have cost easily 3 times more in Europe!). I keep getting amazed by the food in this country...

Time to jump on the train back to Fukuoka then, where we spent one more night at our Ryokan before catching out train for Kagoshima.

Two Days in Tokyo

We were both rather excited about our second trip to Japan - our first trip had left quite an impression on both of us. This time, we were planning to spend most of our trip in Kyushu, the southern-most of Japan's main islands. But before heading south, we had a couple of days to spend in Tokyo.

After picking up our luggage and withdrawing some cash, we jumped on the train and headed for our hotel, which was located in the Kodenmacho district (quite near to the main train station of Tokyo). Our hotel room was pretty much as expected: minimalist, clean and functional (one can't really expect more than that for the 60 euros we were paying per night). After dropping of our luggage, we headed out straight away to start exploring Tokyo. (stopping at a subway station to grab a quick noodle lunch - amazing value for money at about 4 euros a head!).

We took the underground to Shinjuku, from where we decided to walk down to  Yoyogi-Koen, one of the main parks of Tokyo. Shinjuku in many ways gives a pretty good overview of what Tokyo has to offer: there are huge shopping centres, skyscrapers, neon-signs, loads of restaurants, bars and loads of people. But it's more a place to visit in the evening, so we didn't linger, and headed to Yoyogi-Koen. The main sight in Yoyogi-Koen is Meiji-Jingu, the most famous Shintoist Shrine in Tokyo. It is clearly an important place for people here in Tokyo - as testified by the huge amounts of people here. We were lucky enough to catch a wedding here as well - quite a photogenic little ceremony, with people dressed in traditional wear and so forth...

We were disappointed not to witness and Cos-Play-Zoku at Jingu-Bashi (a bridge leading into the park). Cos-Play-Zoku is Japanese for Costume Play Gang - the phenomenon basically involves youngsters getting together and dressing up in a funny or original way - and begging to be immortalized on photo ;-). Unfortunately, seems that there was no Cos-Play-Zoku here this particular Sunday... From there we headed into Omote-Sando, one of the main shopping streets of Tokyo (sometimes called the Champs Elysee of Tokyo). A shopping heaven for some people, I'm sure ;-). Anyways, I think shopping in Japan is quite entertaining even for a totally fashion-immune person like myself - there is just so much weird/funny stuff on display that it's just impossible to get bored. We also found some pretty cool streets just off Omote-Sando, with funky cafes and bars (and some people that probably classify as Cos-Play-Zoku people as well, who seemed quite happy to pose for photos!).

After this distinctly Tokyoite experience, it was time for us to head for Ueno park, where we had a rendez-vous with our good friend Matsuoka, whom we were meeting for dinner. Actually meeting up with Matsuoka-san turned out to be quite a challenge (I had difficulty decrypting the underground station names Matsuoka was trying to patiently spell out to me) - anyway to cut a long story short, we eventually manage to meet up at Ueno park. He took us to a nice Yakitori place, like he did during our last visit to Tokyo. We were, as always, most impressed with the food. Yakitori is basically a restaurant that serves grilled meat on skewers. We were treated to more or less all the parts of the pork one can eat (I particularly enjoyed the rectum!). Naturally, quite a few beers were downed as well as we were catching up with Matsuoka. Great to see him again!

After a good night's sleep (we'd managed to stay up all day, so fell asleep pretty much straight away), we got up bright 'n early and headed to southern Tokyo, for a very particular reason. Basically, I had to get my driver's license translated into Japanese, to be able to hire a car later on in Kyushu, which has to be done at the JAF office, which was where we were headed. Before getting the translation done, we had time for a quick visit of Zojo-Ji - a rather impressive temple (it was actually the "family temple" of the Tokugawas - a family of emperors from the Edo-Period).

We also took the elevator up to the top of Tokyo Tower (measuring 339 meters - or 9 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower, by which it's quite clearly heavily inspired). The view from up there was rather impressive - I am guessing it would be even nicer at night time, with all the skyscrapers being lit up. We then dropped off my drivers license for translation, and headed back towards the town centre. The next stop was Akihabara - or Electronics city! This is THE place to get your latest gadget - I ended up buying a Cannon EOS 650D camera with a nice lens. I guess it's becoming a bit of a tradition for me - a new camera each time I go to Japan :D.

After a quick bento lunch in the sun, we continued our exploration of Tokyo by heading through Ueno park up to Yanaka. Yanaka is the proof that Tokyo isn't just skyscrapers, neon signs and hordes of humans. It's a real haven of peace in what is one of the busiest cities in the world. No skyscrapers in sight here - just small houses, residential streets. We really loved this part of Tokyo, with its pretty houses, small quirky shops, and slightly offbeat feel. The place had a slight "bo-bo" feel to it (a French expression, look it up on the internet ;-). After a nice, chilled out walk here, and a quick exploration of the famous graveyard that is located here, it was time for me to head back to pick up my translated driver's license. It all went smoothly (as things always go in Japan), and I was quite soon back a the hotel, translated driver's license in hand.

For dinner, we decided to head to Monjayaki-dori, a street on an artificial island in the bay of Tokyo, which is supposed to have about 80 restaurants serving monjayaki. We had some real challenges finding the place (finding places in Tokyo in general is quite tricky, especially since we don't master any of the three Japanese alphabets, but here we really struggled) - but thanks to some friendly locals, we eventually found the street. There was indeed ample choice - and we picked one restaurant more or less by random. The concept of monjayaki is basically that a kind of liquid batter is fried on a teppan (a kind of metal griddle, also used for cooking teppanyaki), and mixed with ingredients of your choice (we went for pork, some vegetables and prawn). You then basically eat the stuff off the teppan directly, with a spatula. Unsurprisingly, a real culinary experience, and delicious as well! Before heading off the hotel, we had a quick walk around Roppongi, which is a nice part of town night-time - with all the skyscrapers being lit up.

That brought an end to the first part of our trip - we were catching our flight to Kyushu early the next morning. What can I say about Tokyo ? A fantastic and fascinating place - there is just so much to see. We have barely scratched the surface - and loved every minute of it!