V in Japan - Day 5

Day 5 – A visit to Kamakura

• Date: October 17
• Weather: Warm and clouded, turned into rain afterwards.
• Mood: okay, though I've felt better

Kamakura - The Beach

We decided to leave the crowded atmosphere of Tokyo and went to a nearby place called Kamakura. Kamakura is located 50 kms south of Tokyo and has both beach and mountains. It is worth a visit, if you don't mind hiking.

We arrived in Kamakura in the morning, packed with rain gear (because there was a 30% chance of us getting rain). But when we arrived, it was hot with a bit of clouds. We stuffed our rain gear in our backpacks and headed for the beach.

We noticed that Kamakura beach is apparently a surfer beach (Zamokuza Beach). We spotted a few surfer-style shops and several people were out surfing (even if it was the middle of the week). We had our breakfast (bought some stuff from the bakery in the station) on a pier at the beach.

While Francis and me bought typical western pastries (like croissants), Steven ate a classic from animes: Melon bread. He noticed it did not have any melon, but only a slight melon-like flavor. Somehow, we were a little disappointed with that result.

We enjoyed the weather and the scenery of water, surfers, random kids (seriously, don’t they have school?), many crows and a random bird of prey.

 

Visiting the Kamakura Buddha

After relaxing for a while, we went back to the station, to find the easiest way to get to the Kamakura Buddha (the second tallest of Japan). The easiest way ended up being a busride, so we took it.

After a short trip on the bus, we stopped at the Buddha and had a look around. We also went inside the Buddha, as the inner part of the bronze statue was open for public.

There were lots of school kids at the site (recognizable by the colored hats/caps) that spotted tourists and asked them some questions, ordered by their teachers (ah, so it was a school trip, that’s why). We were interviewed by several kids and had pictures taken with them

 

Visitng the Hasedara temple

After the Buddha, we visited a nearby temple (Hase-dera temple).

Due to a short toilet break, we kind of split up for a short while. When everyone was finished we gathered back. In a rush to get back to us, Francis took a wrong step. He tripped and fell into a pond (I could show you the picture, but I promised him not to upload that one). His glasses didn't break and (more importantly) his quite-new iPhone survived the fall in the water.

The Hase-dera area is worth a visit. Lots of buddha statues of varied sizes (from very small to quite big), a nice temple and a good view over Kamakura.

Oh, look at Steven's blessing message, clearly not being sarcastic...

 

Walking the Daibutu Hiking Course

After that visit, we took a hiking path (Daibutu Hiking Course). This course goes by lots of different small temples in the area, which are all available to visit. The path went up and down in the mountains of Kamakura (yeah, from the beach to mountains, Kamakura does have it all).

We stopped for a drink in a mountain café and noticed the weather started to shift into rain. After this intercourse, we continued the course in dry weather. But the further we walked, the harder it started to rain.

We visited 3 or 4 temples, though I can’t remember the names of the places we visited. The rain kind of decreased the pleasure out the visits. The rain also obviously decreased the number of people we encountered.

One cool thing we spotted: One of the temples had a rock to throw dishes at (Ma-Saru-ishi), to cast away your negative feelings.

 

Returning to Tokyo

Due to darkness creeping in again (yeah, it’s dark quite early in Japan) and the weather not clearing up, we decided to walk back to the station.

We followed some random pointers, as the tourist maps in our hands and on the streets weren't very clear on how to get back to the station (remember this, it's going to be a running gag). It's a miracle we got back to the station without getting lost, honestly.

It was about six o'clock when we got to the station, so we ended up in the rush hour for the train back to Tokyo. Oh, well. Wasn't THAT bad (quite similar to Rush hours in other countries, honestly).

Back at K's House, we wanted to eat something BIG, because we didn’t eat since the breakfast at the beach. We were so hungry we could eat a horse. So we went to a ramen restaurant nearby K’s House and ordered a big dish of noodles.

Steven exaggerated and ordered “monster size noodles”, a side-dish of gyoza (dumplings) and a dish of bamboo shoots. He shared some of the noodles, veggies and dumplings, but he did finish the plate in the end.

We went back to K’s House for the free drink night, which is held every Wednesday. But we ended up arriving a little too late; the “free” drinks were all gone. So we went to bed instead.

Tips for traveling in Japan - Vending machines

When in Japan, drink Suntory hot coffee… like a boss!

"Like a boss!"

I do mention ”Hot”, because vending machines serve both hot and cold drinks, including hot and cold coffee. You can notice the difference on the cards with the name of the drink. Blue cards are cold drinks, red cards are hot drinks. Don't forget this, because the logic of which drinks are hot and which ones are cold is not always as you might expect!

For example, The hot coffee cans taste very good (different flavors for each taste). But believe me, the cold coffee cans taste awful. It’s not iced coffee. It’s like hot coffee that stood out there for an hour, becoming cold (ugh).

And yes, it's important to cover vending machines. Because you will encounter tons of them. There's at least 1 vending machine on like each corner of the street, and sometimes on multiple locations within the same street. And yes, even in smaller cities and towns, vending machines pop up everywhere (although in smaller number than in Tokyo or Kyoto).

And on an absurd side-note, the number of trash-cans to throw the empty cans/bottles into are much harder to find. Don't throw trash on the street, people WILL judge you for littering. If you can't find a trash can, keep the empty can/bottle with you until you spot one, or until you reach the hotel/hostel.

V in Japan - Day 4

Day 4: Akihabara

• Date: October 16
• Weather: sunny
• Mood: Energetic

Going to Akihabara

We decided that (as anime fans) we had to spend at least 1 full day in Akihabara, and that day was today. We got up early, took the subway to the nearest JR station and then hopped on the train to Akihabara.

Yaaaawn... Okay, maybe it was a little too early...

When we got out of the train station, we were welcomed by this famous girl.

We decided to eat breakfast at the curry place just next to the station. It’s always risky to order a meal via tiny pictures on a vending machine, but we tried our luck anyway. I had rice-curry with hamburger. It was amazing; I really, really love rice-curry. Steven ended up having a spicy rice-curry that ended up being a bit too strong for his stomach.

Believe it or not, this was GOOD!

The Sega Store

After breakfast, we entered the Sega building from the second picture. We got some toys (One Piece stuff) from the Capsule Toy vending machines (edit: they're called gashapon according to Chris), tried the games and had lots of fun.

We experienced a rhythm/drumming game (don’t mind the weird name: “kiss kiss bang bang”) and one of the many music games. Several games had a waiting line (the Project Diva games and the new Initial D race game, for example), so we skipped those.

And yes, we did spend a few hours in here. It was six floors of pure fun!

Apparently Francis filmed Steven and me playing Kis Kiss Bang Bang. I haven't seen the result yet (:-P)

Visiting the Rest of Akihabara

After finishing the Sega store, we walked around and visited many stores of anime/manga stuff, card games, electronic gadgets and everything an anime fan could dream of.

We even walked through a street with electronic parts… I mean real electronic components. Resistors, conductors, wires, tools, analyzers, everything an electronics techie could dream of. I know a few friends who could get their own kind of nerdgasm in here.

We also spotted maids. Girls, dressed up as maids, trying to get some customers to their maid café. The voice in which they do it is nearly begging (but mostly annoyingly high pitched). When you try to take pictures of them, they quickly turn around and ensure they're not on camera. But Francis did manage to film one of them (didn't get any of his films yet, sadly enough). We didn’t visit any maid café ourselves, since we heard/read many negative comments about it (the general reaction was: not worth the time/money).

After sunset (around 6 PM or so), the number of screaming maids increased (a serious pain in the ear), our wallets got emptier and we wanted to go back during rush hour (to experience the rush hour in the trains). It was very crowded, but still not impossible.

If you believe Akihabara ads, the Project Diva games and Persona 4 are the hottest things right now!

 

Results of the shopping spree

Once back at K’s House, we took out what we bought. I got myself a wine glass of Fate Zero, several figurines of varied sizes, including: Gin (Gintama), Dracule Mihawk, Usopp, Camie and a mini-Roronoa Zoro (One Piece), Lelouch Lamperouge and Suzaku (Code Geass), Haruhi Suzumiya (of the named series), Claus F. lester (Tales of Phantasia), a mini-Erza Scarlett (Fairy Tail), a mini-Kurapika (Hunter X Hunter) and a mini Black Snow Princess (Accel World). I also got a statue of Majestic Star Dragon, some H.C. Excalibur sleeves (Yu-Gi-Oh!) and a deck box from Accel World.

Steven didn't buy much (he's not really that much of an anime fan). Francis found a few glasses as well, a poster or two, a few doujins, some other stuff and a pillow of Shirahoshi, while being in Megalo the Shark (from One Piece). I thought it was hilarious.

Dinner and drinks

For dinner, we originally intended to go to some Udon restaurant on the map, but during the walk we decided to enter a random (family-run) Japanese Restaurant.

Due to the random entry, we obviously had some trouble to make ourselves understandable, but it was okay in the end. They only had a limited card, but we had Rice with a Roast Beef and some veggies.

We then bought some drinks at the 7/11, drank them at K’s House (with Miya-chan, again) and went to bed.

Tips for visiting Japan - Akihabara

Akihabara is big and thé place to be for all things manga/anime-related. If you know of, or have heard of certain shops in Akihabara, get the address and note it down, together with Google maps directions. If you don't, you won't find it. Akihabara is big enough to spend the entire day without noticing the shop/location YOU wanted to visit.

For example, I knew there was an arcade that has the infamous "Flip the Table" game, but I was unable to find it due to forgetting to print out the Google-maps directions. Kind of regret that in retrospect.

Also, as previously mentioned, don't visit maid cafés. They're tourist/nerd traps. They cost a lot and (according to the opinion of many people who did went there) it's so not worth the money.

V in Japan - Day 3

Day 3 – The Ghibli Museum & Shinjuku

• Date: October 15
• Weather = sunny
• Mood: Up and ready to kick some ass!

Next Challenge - Japanese Breakfast!

The next morning (a Monday), we all woke up quite happy and re-energized. We decided that we should try a Japanese breakfast and checked the map of the environment we got from K's House. We spotted a restaurant marked for "breakfast" and walked towards it, taking in the environment.

Getting a meal in that small restaurant was a bit confusing at first. But after an awkward minute we got the clue that we had to buy a meal ticket at the vending machine at the entrance and only had to give the resulting ticket to the waitress (oooh, so that's how it works?).

We looked at the vending machine and spotted what appeared to be the breakfast variant buttons. We all pushed on the complete Japanese Breakfast, to experience it all!

The breakfast we ordered ended up as follows: a cup of rice, a raw egg (to put on the rice?), miso soup, a piece of steamed salmon, some seaweed slices and natto beans.

Most of it was quite enjoyable, safe the natto. I've known from several anime that natto is not exactly the haute-cuisine of Japan and is mostly ridiculed for its stickiness. I truly felt like that Gintama character that fights with natto (ref: Ayame Sarutobi). Chopsticks were still kind of weird to use and the sticky beans didn't help. The taste itself was... not bad, but not that great either.

Japanese Breakfast

A visit to the Ghibli Museum

After breakfast, we wanted to visit the Ghibli museum. Take note: You can order these tickets in advance (click the previous link) to save some expenses and avoid language barriers (we ordered ours in advance).

We walked from the breakfast restaurant to the nearest JR station and took a look around to check the neighborhood a little (Yeah, you can call us tourists. But it IS a totally different world to experience if you know what I mean). In the JR station we hopped on a train to the Mitaka station (the station most close by to the museum). Once in Mitaka, we got off the train and chose to walk to the museum (instead of taking a bus), because of the good weather.

Trust me, the walk is worth the effort. The walk goes by a nice environment and you can experience nice, real Japanese neighborhoods, similar to what you see in animes.

After a nice walk, we got in line for the museum (lots of people, considering it’s a Monday and not a holiday). And after a short period of waiting, we got in.

It was a really nice museum. If you’re fan of anime and/or Ghibli movies in general, you should go there. You're not allowed to take pictures inside, but you can take a few outside, with the giant from one of the Ghibli movies (Ref: Laputa, Castle in the Sky) and a stone with cryptic language (Francis mentioned it looked like the stones of the Void Century from One Piece).

Group picture of us three at the giant apparently failed (*sadface*).

The entry ticket is a few frames from a random Ghibli movie (quite original), which also grants you access to a short Ghibli movie, only available in the museum. It was a nice movie, with only sfx and audio, but no voice acting (so that people from all around the world could enjoy it). After the tour of the museum and the movie, we went to the Ghibli shop (too crowded) and back outside.

After the museum, we took a walk in the nearby Inokashira park and spotted some stuff of the Tokyo Green 2012 exhibit. After a refreshing walk through the park, we walked back to the station.

Steven and I walk in the park in err... in style.

 

Go into the crowd - a visit to Shinjuku

Next on our plan, we decided to take the train to Shinjuku.

Once we arrived, I tried to explain the 2 different areas of Shinjuku to Steven (the office buildings area & the shopping area), but he walked off in one direction without listening (okay, I guess I should praise his sense for adventure, but still...). Too bad the direction we walked into ended up to be the office area.

After a while we realized we hardly encountered people and the number of shops were replaced with big office buildings. Steven realized our mistake and we turned back (*facepalm*).

We did pass by (and entered) one (our first) manga/anime shop on this route and saw some nice stuff inside (including Yugioh-stuff). We also noticed the typical shout of the shopkeepers (irasshaimase, and abbreviated as irrashai). Once a certain employee spots you getting closer he shouts it, and it automatically echoes throughout the shop as all employees repeat it. At first I was baffled by it, though you get used to it if you hear it a few times (believe me, it can be quite surprising if you're checking the shelves and a shopkeeper behind you suddenly yells "Irasshaaaaaaaai!").

After we passed the station again (*sigh*), we then walked into the right area of Shinjuku. This area DID have lots of shops, buildings and people. This was a nice first experience with the crowded side of Tokyo. After crawling through the streets for a while, we were starting to get hungry. We noticed a lot of KFC shops and Mcdonalds, but we all decided we would NOT visit any Western kind of restaurants, only Japanese restaurants. So entered another Sukiya shop and we had another beef bowl (hurrah for repetitiveness).

Walking around in Shinjuku

 

Back at the hostel and checking a local pub

In the evening, we went back to the Hostel to chill for a while. Now that I was clearly awake, I had to test all the buttons on the Japanese-Western toilet. Spraying water, mimicking flushing sounds, it has it all (try it, it's really fun :-D ).

High-tech toilets you can't find over here.

In the late evening, we checked out a local pub (really local, they couldn't understand a word of English) to have a drink and some meat sticks.

Service was kind of slow, they hardly understood us and they got the orders wrong several times (even after pointing it out on their menu card). But in the end, it was a nice experience. And we walked back to the hostel quite happy(-drunk). Francis even tried the innards-stick (eww). He said "The taste is okay, but quite rubber-like". For drinks, Francis went back to beer, Steven had a local liquor and me, I tried the sake for the first time. The waitress said you could try it either ice cold, or hot. I tried the hot version and it was quite good.

Francis trying the innards (left) and my first saké (right)

Tips for visiting Japan - Restaurants

There are different kinds of restaurants in Japan. And no, I don't just mean the food they serve. I mean the way in HOW you're served.

1. Local (family-run) restaurants. If you're in luck, the restaurant will have an English menu card. If they don't immediately show it, ask if they have one. We only had 1 restaurant (and 1 bar) where they didn't have an English menu in our entire trip. Even if the people in the restaurant don't understand you (and vice versa), pointing to the correct location on the menu is often good enough to get the food you want.
2. Restaurant chains, like Sukiya. They more often have plastic folding menu cards with pictures you can choose from on all the tables. They won't necessarily have English translations on their menu, but the pictures and random description often gives you a good enough impression as to what the food item really is.
3. Restaurants with ticket vending machines. The vending machines are more tricky. You enter money in the slots, push the desired food button and get a ticket you can give to the waiter/waitress. But each button is only 3-5 square centimeters big and has a small picture and a small Japanese text. If your eyes are good, you can make out what's on the picture. Otherwise, it's a gamble...

If you do have an area map, like the ones K's House provide, the marked restaurants will have either an English menu or a vending Machine. Randomly entering restaurants that are not marked on the map may have "varied results".

In the case where the restaurant does not have an English menu, you're going to have a little trouble explaining yourself. But this challenge can be quite fun too, right?

V in Japan - Day 2

Day 2 – Narita Airport, K’s House Tokyo and Harajuku

• Date: October 14
• Weather: hot and sunny
• Mood: Trying to keep up appearances, but friggin' tired

Arriving in Narita

Next morning (local time), we landed in Narita.

We went through Immigration (which went quite smoothly considering the enormous line), customs and luggage stuff.

When we walked towards the train area we spotted the JR office and went there to activate our JR passes and book a seat on the Narita Express to Tokyo. We waited in line (less smooth than the previous line), but got our passes activated in the end. We learned how to do this JR-pass thing (Go to the “white-backed ticket” counter at the entry/exit of the station, flash the JR pass and get a friendly “Dôzo” to move along) and went down to the railway.

When arriving on the platform, we immediately went to the first shop we saw to try some local drinks and snacks. Francis tried the Kirin beer, Steven some iced tea (not ice tea, just "iced" tea, as we noticed) and I got some peach drink (not bad). Steven also got some snack that looked like salami but tasted like fish (kind of weird taste).

When the train arrived, we hopped on and took off for Tokyo.

Us checking our first local drinks and snacks. The one on the right is mine.

 

K's House Tokyo

Once we arrived in Tokyo, we checked our printout of directions to go to our hostel (K’s House Tokyo Oasis). We had to puzzle the correct directions together, because it was formulated quite confusingly. But we got there in the end, by train and subway AND without walking or taking a train in the wrong direction! Hooray! (*Achievement Unlocked – Finding your way in the Tokyo Subway*.)

We checked into the hostel and got a map of the environment from the cleric, marked with all sorts of interesting places (places to eat or drink, stores, banks, landmarks, etc). We looked at the map and decided to go to a local chain of restaurants (Sukiya).

After dropping off our luggage, we walked to the Sukiya store and ordered a beef bowl (which is rice with beef slices and onion on top of it). This was the first time I used chop sticks. It took some time getting used to it, but I finished it in the end! (*Achievement unlocked – Eating with chop sticks*).

Notice the environment map behind my plate of food.

Harajuku Failure

After eating, we already felt quite tired from the trip, but we still decided to "spot freaks and fashionista's" in Harajuku (Harajuku is famous for its fashion, both in the positive as the extreme meaning). We went to the district, but ended up walking through the streets with shops and hardly spotted fashionista's or freaks.

Only afterwards we realized our mistake, due to us being deadly tired. What was the problem? We forgot to check the details in our guide. The freaks apparently don’t gather in the shopping area, but in a nearby park (*facepalm, no achievement this time*).

After checking the Harajuku area for a while, we decided to head back.

Once back at K’s House, Francis went straight to bed and started sleeping like a log (he was sick a few days before the trip and felt incredibly tired due to the trip and medication he still had to take). Steven and I didn't really want to go to bed already, so we chatted for a while with the other guests in the lounge room (an Israeli & French Girl and a Japanese elder man nicknamed Miya-chan).

Here's Steven with Miya-chan.

We told the Israeli girl that the Japanese subway costs a lot. We noticed (even with us being tired) that the subway is owned by 2 different private companies (that are not part of JR) and is thus quite expensive if you use it a lot. She explained that the JR railways go to most places all around Tokyo and you should only use the subways to get from your hotel to the nearest JR station to save your expenses. That was a helpful tip, honestly.

Together with the Israeli girl, we checked out the 7/11 across the street (literally, like 20 meters from the hostel; useful that it was this close by). We checked the shop, got us some instant noodles, payed and afterwards laughed with the cashier that bowed ridiculously low (nearly 90°).

Back at the hostel, we ate the noodles, drank a beer with Miya-chan and went to bed ourselves.

Tips for traveling in Japan

• The JR pass is one of the cheaper ways to travel through Japan. You can order it from anywhere in the world and you can activate the ticket in the JR office in the airport. With the pass you can travel through most of Japan (safe a few local lines). The passes come in 7-days, 14-days and 21-days.
• In the railway station, go to the JR office to reserve your place for your desired train (any time, any destination). When going to the train, search for the “white-backed ticket” counter. Sometimes this in a separate office, next to the other check-in counters. When passing, show the JR pass to the person in the office. If all is okay, you'll get a friendly dôzo and you can move on.
• The subways in Tokyo are owned by different companies. Both which are not part of JR. But since the JR railways runs throughout most local areas of Tokyo, you can keep the subway usage to the minimum (from your hotel/hostel to the nearest JR railway station and back) and make use of your JR pass.
• If you don't understand Japanese characters, ensure you have an English variant of the Japanese Subway net. Some smaller stations don't mention the English/Romaji names. Just search a detailed one on the net, there are plenty of them.

V in Japan - Day 0 and Day 1

My journey in Japan is over. I’ve been writing the whole journey in a document and now that the concert of the orchestra I’m part of (also part of the managing team) is over, I finally have the time to put it online.

The trip to Japan has been a journey that we’ve been planning for almost a year now. But finally it was there. October 13 was the moment I put my first steps on a big plane and flew all the way to a completely new destination: Japan.

Day 0 - The night before

• Date: October 12
• weather: cold and cloudy
• Mood: Excited for the trip

The night before we step on the plane for Japan, the three of us (Steven, Francis and me) drove from Ghent to a hotel near the airport (Novotel Zaventem). Our first flight (from Zaventem to Frankfurt) was early in the morning, so we could use all the rest we can get.

We got a room for the night at a cheap price. Steven used to work in Novotel, so he got a employee discount (or something like that). He met up with some of his old colleagues and got us a free drink (as in “only one each” as we noticed when we got the check) at the bar and we went to bed.

Day 1 – Travel and The wasted hours

• Date: October 13
• weather: Cold, but sunny
• Mood: Shifting from tired, to excited for the trip, to being tired again.

We woke up early in the morning (around 4.30 or so) and hopped on the shuttle bus to the airport, where we had to wait (that WAS the key word today) until Lufthansa opened its check-in counter.

Look at us being happy about waking up this early and having to wait...

After dropping off our luggage and going through the necessary safety shizzle, we got on our first plane to Frankfurt. This was my first experience on anything bigger than a sports plane and I was quite nervous for it. But it went quite smoothly and I hardly felt anything. (*Achievement unlocked – Flying on a plane*).

About 45 minutes later we landed in Frankfurt and we had to wait for our connecting flight to Narita... for near 6 hours. We knew this in advance (hence the cheap price for the flight), but it was still kind of annoying to wait this long. We got some breakfast (at a new place that opened up last week. Slow service, undermanned and staff that had trouble understanding English… wow!) and waited in the chairs.

Waiting in Frankfurt.

We noticed an annoyingly crying little kid that cried for hours straight, without stopping. We couldn't really complain about it (since kids can cry for long times, you know...), but we hoped it wouldn’t be on our plane. Well too bad, because it was on our plane and cried almost non-stop during the entire flight, safe a few hours of sleeping.

After near six hours of waiting, we finally got on our plane (Airbus A380) and flew off to the other side of the world.

A380. Damn' good plane!

We each had a screen in the seat in front of us to watch some movies (like Madagascar 3, Brave, MIB3, the latest Spider-Man, etc.) or some random episodes of various tv-shows. It helped to pass the time, because sleeping on a plane is not that easy.

We also got lots of drinks and two meals on the flight, all for free (cool). For meals we could choose between western and Asian. Well, for a flight meal, it wasn't all that bad.

Flight meal... it's something

And so, as we flew on the plane, the day shifted from Saturday to Sunday...