Hey folks. As the name says, I'm back home in Atlanta. And that's all I have the energy for a the moment. I'm going to go to sleep now. Look forward to more posts in the near future to find out more about what I saw on the trip!
Good night.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Hey everyone! It's now Day 15 and ....
I'm still alive. Unfortunately hotels in Tokyo don't believe in providing internet for their guests at no cost, and it's damn expensive. I finally bit the bullet and paid for a while so I could post this and check on my email to make sure no one was trying to reach me.
So yes, I'm back in Tokyo and am in the middle of Day 15 of my trip. I've seen most of the major sites in Tokyo now, and I'm basically shopping at this point. Trying to budget out the rest of my cash so I don't go broke or have too much left over. Not that going broke is a big problem since I still have my credit cards, but they're not as useful over here as in the US. Japan is very cash-based. It seems more and more businesses are accepting credit cards, but that's still a minority of stores in most of Japan.
Even in Tokyo, I'm finding that something like half of the stores only take cash. That ratio is higher among restaurants. However, places like department stores, and most of the Akihabara retail shops, almost all seem to accept credit cards. I suppose the places more likely to take cards are the places tourists are more likely to go. Be warned though. There is usually a minimum purchase amount to use your credit card, even at a 7-11 where you will always find an ATM you can withdraw cash from with your card. I've seen that 'minimum' be as high as 10,000 yen, or roughly $80 if you get a good exchange rate in the current market.
My plan for future posts is to try and post one last one before the flight, but that's not a guaranteed thing. Once I get back to the US, I'll post that I arrived safely, then you can expect posts over the next week or so to bring you up to date on what I saw, along with the more interesting photos. That's going to be alot of work, but it'll be fun for me and hopefully for you all, too.
Well, that's all for now. This may be the last chance I get to post before my flight back. I've loved my time in Japan, but I have to admit it will be nice to get back home where things are familiar again.
Later!
I'm still alive. Unfortunately hotels in Tokyo don't believe in providing internet for their guests at no cost, and it's damn expensive. I finally bit the bullet and paid for a while so I could post this and check on my email to make sure no one was trying to reach me.
So yes, I'm back in Tokyo and am in the middle of Day 15 of my trip. I've seen most of the major sites in Tokyo now, and I'm basically shopping at this point. Trying to budget out the rest of my cash so I don't go broke or have too much left over. Not that going broke is a big problem since I still have my credit cards, but they're not as useful over here as in the US. Japan is very cash-based. It seems more and more businesses are accepting credit cards, but that's still a minority of stores in most of Japan.
Even in Tokyo, I'm finding that something like half of the stores only take cash. That ratio is higher among restaurants. However, places like department stores, and most of the Akihabara retail shops, almost all seem to accept credit cards. I suppose the places more likely to take cards are the places tourists are more likely to go. Be warned though. There is usually a minimum purchase amount to use your credit card, even at a 7-11 where you will always find an ATM you can withdraw cash from with your card. I've seen that 'minimum' be as high as 10,000 yen, or roughly $80 if you get a good exchange rate in the current market.
My plan for future posts is to try and post one last one before the flight, but that's not a guaranteed thing. Once I get back to the US, I'll post that I arrived safely, then you can expect posts over the next week or so to bring you up to date on what I saw, along with the more interesting photos. That's going to be alot of work, but it'll be fun for me and hopefully for you all, too.
Well, that's all for now. This may be the last chance I get to post before my flight back. I've loved my time in Japan, but I have to admit it will be nice to get back home where things are familiar again.
Later!
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Made it to Osaka!
Wow. It's hard to believe that the guided tour portion of my trip is over. From here on out, I get to make my way around mostly by myself. Well, that along with a couple day-long tours in Osaka and Tokyo by personal tour guides and drivers.
However, the good news for now is that I've made it to Osaka. I had a bit of fun at the station in Kyoto trying to make sure I was actually on the right train to Osaka. I apparently misunderstood when the lady was telling me the third floor, I thought she meant Gate 3. Thankfully I noticed that Osaka wasn't anywhere on the line map for Gate 3, so I found another information desk and got it straightened out.
Surprisingly, even the local train service got me to Osaka from Kyoto in about 40 minutes.
Now I get to go find some food, and figure out where I'm going to explore this evening. It's only about 3:30pm here, so I have some time. I saw that it might rain tomorrow, so maybe I'll hit the Umeda (spelling?) Sky Building Today to get some pictures while it's nice.
And I'm so behind on my posts that it's not even funny. Maybe I'll have some time once I get back from exploring. In the mean time, tomorrow is my tour of Osaka!
However, the good news for now is that I've made it to Osaka. I had a bit of fun at the station in Kyoto trying to make sure I was actually on the right train to Osaka. I apparently misunderstood when the lady was telling me the third floor, I thought she meant Gate 3. Thankfully I noticed that Osaka wasn't anywhere on the line map for Gate 3, so I found another information desk and got it straightened out.
Surprisingly, even the local train service got me to Osaka from Kyoto in about 40 minutes.
Now I get to go find some food, and figure out where I'm going to explore this evening. It's only about 3:30pm here, so I have some time. I saw that it might rain tomorrow, so maybe I'll hit the Umeda (spelling?) Sky Building Today to get some pictures while it's nice.
And I'm so behind on my posts that it's not even funny. Maybe I'll have some time once I get back from exploring. In the mean time, tomorrow is my tour of Osaka!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
In Kanazawa
Just a quick update for now.
We made it to Kanazawa after a bit of an interesting day. I'll save most of it for later once I catch up on my posts, but there was an accident in one of the tunnels we were using after we left Takayama and Shirakawago. And it can't have happened more than a minute ahead of us, since we could see one of the cars from where were. Of course, being in a bus in a tunnel we couldn't turn around, so we had to wait for an hour before we were able to keep going. Thankfully it didn't look like anyone was hurt severely, and we managed to make it here to Kanazawa alright.
I have to say, the first work that comes to mind for this hotel is swanky. I'm starting to see why the tour cost so much. Not that I'm complaining.
Well, time to relax a bit and get ready for dinner. I'll leave you with a picture that I'm rather surprised with how well it turned out. It's a sakura blossom (cherry tree).
We made it to Kanazawa after a bit of an interesting day. I'll save most of it for later once I catch up on my posts, but there was an accident in one of the tunnels we were using after we left Takayama and Shirakawago. And it can't have happened more than a minute ahead of us, since we could see one of the cars from where were. Of course, being in a bus in a tunnel we couldn't turn around, so we had to wait for an hour before we were able to keep going. Thankfully it didn't look like anyone was hurt severely, and we managed to make it here to Kanazawa alright.
I have to say, the first work that comes to mind for this hotel is swanky. I'm starting to see why the tour cost so much. Not that I'm complaining.
Well, time to relax a bit and get ready for dinner. I'll leave you with a picture that I'm rather surprised with how well it turned out. It's a sakura blossom (cherry tree).
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Day 3 - Kamakura and Hakone mountains
Day 3 saw us on a day excursion to Kamakura to see a 700 year-old Great Buddha and take a romp through the Hakone mountains. Moko, our tour guide, explained that Kamakura is something of a hot spot for people visiting shrines and temples, and it seems like she was right. But first, a few interesting photos from the bus as we left Tokyo for the day.
I still don't know what this building was, but I can't say I've ever seen anything like it.
This was part of Haneda Airport, which is the airport I was supposed to land in originally.
Mount Fuji! Fujiyama is literally translated as Fuji-mountain, but Moko assured us that many Japanese call him Fuji-san. This was my first good look at the mountain so far on this trip. Apparently, we're really lucky that it's clear enough to see from Tokyo. Moko said that several of her tour groups have gone their entire trip without seeing this elusive mountain. It feels a bit strange calling what we know to be a moderately immobile object elusive, but when you're looking for a picture of him, sometimes you would swear he really can move.
My theory is that you can't get enough pictures of cherry blossoms. The season for them is relatively short, and we've been lucky to have such a good stretch of blooms. I hope they're in season when we get to Kyoto. Moko said she'd been in Kyoto about two weeks ago, and it was still too early at the time for them. I also hope they're still in bloom back in Tokyo when I make it back.
As we drive through Kamakura, we pass by what I think is the main Shinto shrine in the town. This is the main Tori gate above.
And this is the walkway that goes for what I would have estimated at at least a quarter to half a mile from that Tori gate and down the middle of the road. As you can see, it's lined with cherry trees, and there are people enjoying the walk down the path. Moko explained that the path is lit up at night. It must be amazing. If the cherry trees are still in season in Tokyo towards the end of my trip, I make take an evening and some back up to Kamakura by train to get some night shots.
This shot is looking towards the back of the bus at the Tori gate at the opposite end of the path from the first Tori gate above.
We made it to the Great Buddha, and it's hard to describe how big he is, so I'll just show you.
As you can see, he's rather large. He's so large you can actually go inside him for 20 yen. There was quite a bit of interesting stuff to see, but not much to tell here. However, I am really glad we got here when we did. Remember when I mentioned Kamakura was something of a popular place for seeing shrines and temples? Well...
The kids were well-behaved, but it just got a bit busy. I was even asked by a Japanese family to take a picture of them, which I did of course. By this time we've explored all we can of the temple area, so we hop back on the buss to tour the Hakone mountains.
Nothing really to tell here. It just struck me as funny seeing a McDonald's at the time.
As we got closer to the Hakone mountains, the terrain obviously got a bit rougher. I have quite a few scenic shots, but two stuck out for me.
I didn't notice what I'd managed to get in this shot at first. But now that I look at it, I love how the cloud either is, or seems to be, crawling over the mountain.
This may be the best shot of the trip from my iPhone. That's a long-distance shot with the zoom on a camera phone, folks. Fuji-san was just peeking through the clouds. I love how I caught him right in a break in the clouds so he's framed by them.
We hopped on a cable car up to a fairly high point in the Hakone mountains. During the ride, we passed over a fairly active geothermic area, which yielded some neat shots.
Ok, not a geothermic shot, but a great few from the cable car.
That yellow stuff is sulfur. Moko had warned us that it would smell, but it wasn't quite as bad as I'd been afraid of.
Right as we disembarked from the train, we noticed something.
Fuji-san was poking his head out again! Ok, I take back what I said earlier. This may be the best pic of the trip taken with my iPhone.
The original plan was to take a walking path to visit some areas to see some areas that might have had some bubbling lava, but the path had been closed recently to fix some damage. So we enjoyed the views, took at look at souvenirs, then took the bus down to Lake Hakone, or Ashinoko to the Japanese. As we were waiting for our boat to depart, I ran into two bums just lying around.
Another cat came up and let me pet him for a bit, but eventually the boat was ready to leave, so it was all aboard.
We boated around Lake Hakone without incident and ended up back on the bus and on the way to take a bullet train!
The bullet train, or Shinkansen, is actually multiple bullet trains that cost different amounts and go different speeds depending on the number of stops on the way. As we were waiting in the station, I heard occasional rumblings that were a bit disturbing. At first I thought they might be the bullet trains, but the sounds seemed way too short to be bullet trains. Turns out I was wrong.
It was nearing time for our train to arrive, so we filed through the turnstiles and went up to the train platform. Within a minute, this Shinkansen came blasting through. I doubt it took more than 2 seconds for the whole thing to blow right past me. I doubt it even slowed down. It was impressive to say the least. What I didn't know at the time was the part about how not all the Shinkansen make regular stops at all stations along the way. I most definitely had been hearing other Shinkansens. I was just wrong to assume it was too short of a sound for them to possibly be passing by.
I guess they're called bullet trains for a reason.
We made it back to Tokyo around 6:30 or so. I had told Lizzy and Amanda about my first experience in Shinjuku Central Park with the locals picnicking and enjoying the cherry blossoms, so I take them over there. There wasn't quite the crowd that I had seen my first night, but it was still interesting to see again. We try to go see the Tokyo skyline from a tower in Shinjuku, but it's closed earlier than normal due to renovations of some sort.
We end up going to dinner in an upper level of Shinjuku station. After several false starts due to insufficient knowledge of the Japanese language and misunderstanding of the food displays, we finally just point to menu items. It was decent, but there were several things on there that I could have done without. Apologies again to the food snobs out there who want pictures. You'll have your share of local food shots soon enough.
Another eventful day in Japan. Sleep is near in my future, but the next post will be about Day 4 and the trek to Takayama. As far as current plans, we leave tomorrow to head to Kanazawa, with a stop along the way at Shirakawa.
Oyasumi nasai! (Good night!)
We made it to the Great Buddha, and it's hard to describe how big he is, so I'll just show you.
As we got closer to the Hakone mountains, the terrain obviously got a bit rougher. I have quite a few scenic shots, but two stuck out for me.
We hopped on a cable car up to a fairly high point in the Hakone mountains. During the ride, we passed over a fairly active geothermic area, which yielded some neat shots.
Right as we disembarked from the train, we noticed something.
The original plan was to take a walking path to visit some areas to see some areas that might have had some bubbling lava, but the path had been closed recently to fix some damage. So we enjoyed the views, took at look at souvenirs, then took the bus down to Lake Hakone, or Ashinoko to the Japanese. As we were waiting for our boat to depart, I ran into two bums just lying around.
We boated around Lake Hakone without incident and ended up back on the bus and on the way to take a bullet train!
The bullet train, or Shinkansen, is actually multiple bullet trains that cost different amounts and go different speeds depending on the number of stops on the way. As we were waiting in the station, I heard occasional rumblings that were a bit disturbing. At first I thought they might be the bullet trains, but the sounds seemed way too short to be bullet trains. Turns out I was wrong.
It was nearing time for our train to arrive, so we filed through the turnstiles and went up to the train platform. Within a minute, this Shinkansen came blasting through. I doubt it took more than 2 seconds for the whole thing to blow right past me. I doubt it even slowed down. It was impressive to say the least. What I didn't know at the time was the part about how not all the Shinkansen make regular stops at all stations along the way. I most definitely had been hearing other Shinkansens. I was just wrong to assume it was too short of a sound for them to possibly be passing by.
I guess they're called bullet trains for a reason.
We made it back to Tokyo around 6:30 or so. I had told Lizzy and Amanda about my first experience in Shinjuku Central Park with the locals picnicking and enjoying the cherry blossoms, so I take them over there. There wasn't quite the crowd that I had seen my first night, but it was still interesting to see again. We try to go see the Tokyo skyline from a tower in Shinjuku, but it's closed earlier than normal due to renovations of some sort.
We end up going to dinner in an upper level of Shinjuku station. After several false starts due to insufficient knowledge of the Japanese language and misunderstanding of the food displays, we finally just point to menu items. It was decent, but there were several things on there that I could have done without. Apologies again to the food snobs out there who want pictures. You'll have your share of local food shots soon enough.
Another eventful day in Japan. Sleep is near in my future, but the next post will be about Day 4 and the trek to Takayama. As far as current plans, we leave tomorrow to head to Kanazawa, with a stop along the way at Shirakawa.
Oyasumi nasai! (Good night!)
Day 2 - Calico Cat Cafe
It may sound silly to some of you, but visiting a cat cafe in Tokyo was on my list of things to do. As it turns out, by the luckiest of coincidences, Lizzy had looked up cat cafes before the trip and had found the same cafe as I had found in Shinjuku. So when Lizzy and Amanda brought up finding a cat cafe in Shinjuku while we were in the Nakamise Shopping Arcade, I jumped at the chance. I'm not about to waste the chance when it's right there in front of me. So we had our mission to complete before the welcome dinner that night.
Before I get started, I feel I should explain cat cafes. From what I was told, the majority of apartment complexes in the more developed parts of Tokyo do not allow pets. Then there are many other people who feel they travel too much and are away from home too much to be responsible for pets. Others would love the companionship of a pet, but they don't want the responsibility. What option do these people have?
Enter the cat cafe! In the end, a cat cafe is simply a place you can go to relax, order a coffee or other drink, maybe a snack, and enjoy one of many manga (Japanese comic book) or other book stocked at the cafe. And cats are everywhere. It seems like a very sensible arrangement to me.
So, now to our story. Amanda, Lizzy, and I made it back to Shinjuku and began our search. We realize pretty quickly that none of us remembered to write down the address. We were fairly certain it was on the main road, since Lizzy and I had both found it on Google maps before the trip, but we also knew it was going to be on the upper floors of a building. That means it probably wasn't going to be easy to find. Notice I said "probably".
In this case "probably" turned out to be "easy" because Lizzy spotted the place in about two minutes. Turns out I had walked by a rather obvious sign a few times last night without spotting it. Oh well, it didn't really matter at this point, I guess. We make our way into the building and end up at the entrance to the Calico Cat Cafe on the 6th floor.
We're greeted by an employee who promptly hands us a list of rules in English, including not picking up the cats, not waking the cats up, and not doing anything that would anger the cats. As we learn, there is a flat rate for the amount of time you spend in the cafe, plus any drinks, snacks, or other things you purchase during your stay. We leave our shoes in lockers, take the tags given to us so employees can identify us if we order anything (you don't pay for anything until you leave), and wash our hands. This is another rule, and it makes sense. But that's getting a bit ahead of the story.
We enter the cafe proper, and of course one of the cats makes a break for it. Fortunately, or unfortunately for the cat, the girl who helped us is there to snag the little devil, and she takes him in with us. Cats are lounging around everywhere, of course, and there are about five or six people just sitting around, enjoying watching the felines. A couple people are tempting the cats over with toys. All in all, it was a very relaxed atmosphere.
As I might have mentioned, I had looked up this place before the trip, and I'd picked out a few of the cats as my favorites from the pictures on the website. I was lucky enough to spot my favorite almost immediately, Taiga (pronounced Tye-gah).
The second one is a better shot of him, I think. Taiga is a Maine Coon, and he's the biggest cat in the place. He's my favorite because he reminds me of my mother's Maine Coon, Toby. Taiga basically was just chilling out, so I scratched behind his ears and went looking around again. I quickly found the other Maine Coon, Hyuuga (pronounced Hyoo-gah) pretty quickly. They're easy to spot because of their size.
Hyuuga!
Taiga ad Hyuuga are brothers, although Hyuuga seems to have more white in his coat. For a little bit, I just walked around taking pictures. Here are a few of the cats, although I don't remember their names.
This one wasn't nearly as mean as he looked. He was a big teddy bear who loved scratches behind his ears.
The cafe actually takes up two floors, by the way. The 6th floor has the entrance, and a few play areas for the cats. The 5th floor, which seems to only be accessible via a stairway in the cafe, has the place to order snacks, as well as this area in the last photo above. Also, the shelves where you can pick out a manga to read are somewhere to the back left of the photo. When you charge by the amount of time a person stays, it makes sense to give them as many reasons as you can to stay.
Several of the cats barely even came up to you to sniff your hand before they immediately went off in the other direction. As it turns out, there's a reason for this. You can purchase a small tupperware container of chicken to feed to the cats. The little scavengers knew this, and about half of them were only interested in you if they thought you had food on you. Remember how I mentioned the requirement to wash your hands would make sense? Here's why.
Of course, Amanda and Lizzy buy some chicken. Now we come to the first of several funny moments that happened fairly quickly. It's too bad I didn't have a video of this, but those cats have learned to recognize those little chicken containers. The moment the girl brought it out, they swarmed like a pack of sharks to chum.
You might just be able to make out that the orange one there was reaching out its pawn to pull Amanda's hand towards it to get the chicken. Very funny.
My favorite cat during this scene was this one below.
This little devil was doing the best gargoyle impression I've ever seen.
So the fervor dies down a bit since the chicken has run out. Like I said, scavengers. But the best part of the visit was still to come. We were lucky enough to be there when feeding time came around. For the second time in less than an hour, I wish I had been able to get a video of this, but I didn't have the time. The moment the girl came out with the food trays, the stampede was on.
The blurs should let you know how fast these cats were moving. There really isn't a better way to describe how many cats came charging in than to just show you what I can of the resulting chaos.
At this point, I'm laughing pretty hard, but we're not done quite yet. The ladies who work there encourage the guests to take some of the food from the bowls and hold it out. The cats are quite willing to eat the food out of your hands.
That one sniffed at my hand, but decided to visit Lizzy instead. I hate to say it, but it kinda hurt my feelings a bit....
....But thankfully Hyuuga was there to make me feel better. I knew I liked Maine Coons for a reason.
Realizing we were running short on time, and not really sure that anything could top The Running of the Nekos (Cats; and for anyone know knows Japanese; yes, I know Nekos shouldn't have an S on it, but I don't care in this case), we begin to head back upstairs, but not before I spot this furry little devil.
All in all, I had a blast at the Calico Cat Cafe. On your way out, they give you a book with several pictures of every cat in the cafe and a discount card for your next visit. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it back to here during my second round in Tokyo, but I hope to be back.
Thank you to the Calico Cat Cafe, the employees, and especially the cats for a great time.
And now it's time to head to our full-course Japanese dinner here in Takayama. I'm still behind on my blogging, but I'm working on it! The next blog will be about our day trip to Kamakura and my first real look at Mount Fuji!
Before I get started, I feel I should explain cat cafes. From what I was told, the majority of apartment complexes in the more developed parts of Tokyo do not allow pets. Then there are many other people who feel they travel too much and are away from home too much to be responsible for pets. Others would love the companionship of a pet, but they don't want the responsibility. What option do these people have?
Enter the cat cafe! In the end, a cat cafe is simply a place you can go to relax, order a coffee or other drink, maybe a snack, and enjoy one of many manga (Japanese comic book) or other book stocked at the cafe. And cats are everywhere. It seems like a very sensible arrangement to me.
So, now to our story. Amanda, Lizzy, and I made it back to Shinjuku and began our search. We realize pretty quickly that none of us remembered to write down the address. We were fairly certain it was on the main road, since Lizzy and I had both found it on Google maps before the trip, but we also knew it was going to be on the upper floors of a building. That means it probably wasn't going to be easy to find. Notice I said "probably".
In this case "probably" turned out to be "easy" because Lizzy spotted the place in about two minutes. Turns out I had walked by a rather obvious sign a few times last night without spotting it. Oh well, it didn't really matter at this point, I guess. We make our way into the building and end up at the entrance to the Calico Cat Cafe on the 6th floor.
We're greeted by an employee who promptly hands us a list of rules in English, including not picking up the cats, not waking the cats up, and not doing anything that would anger the cats. As we learn, there is a flat rate for the amount of time you spend in the cafe, plus any drinks, snacks, or other things you purchase during your stay. We leave our shoes in lockers, take the tags given to us so employees can identify us if we order anything (you don't pay for anything until you leave), and wash our hands. This is another rule, and it makes sense. But that's getting a bit ahead of the story.
We enter the cafe proper, and of course one of the cats makes a break for it. Fortunately, or unfortunately for the cat, the girl who helped us is there to snag the little devil, and she takes him in with us. Cats are lounging around everywhere, of course, and there are about five or six people just sitting around, enjoying watching the felines. A couple people are tempting the cats over with toys. All in all, it was a very relaxed atmosphere.
As I might have mentioned, I had looked up this place before the trip, and I'd picked out a few of the cats as my favorites from the pictures on the website. I was lucky enough to spot my favorite almost immediately, Taiga (pronounced Tye-gah).
Taiga ad Hyuuga are brothers, although Hyuuga seems to have more white in his coat. For a little bit, I just walked around taking pictures. Here are a few of the cats, although I don't remember their names.
Several of the cats barely even came up to you to sniff your hand before they immediately went off in the other direction. As it turns out, there's a reason for this. You can purchase a small tupperware container of chicken to feed to the cats. The little scavengers knew this, and about half of them were only interested in you if they thought you had food on you. Remember how I mentioned the requirement to wash your hands would make sense? Here's why.
Of course, Amanda and Lizzy buy some chicken. Now we come to the first of several funny moments that happened fairly quickly. It's too bad I didn't have a video of this, but those cats have learned to recognize those little chicken containers. The moment the girl brought it out, they swarmed like a pack of sharks to chum.
My favorite cat during this scene was this one below.
So the fervor dies down a bit since the chicken has run out. Like I said, scavengers. But the best part of the visit was still to come. We were lucky enough to be there when feeding time came around. For the second time in less than an hour, I wish I had been able to get a video of this, but I didn't have the time. The moment the girl came out with the food trays, the stampede was on.
The blurs should let you know how fast these cats were moving. There really isn't a better way to describe how many cats came charging in than to just show you what I can of the resulting chaos.
At this point, I'm laughing pretty hard, but we're not done quite yet. The ladies who work there encourage the guests to take some of the food from the bowls and hold it out. The cats are quite willing to eat the food out of your hands.
Realizing we were running short on time, and not really sure that anything could top The Running of the Nekos (Cats; and for anyone know knows Japanese; yes, I know Nekos shouldn't have an S on it, but I don't care in this case), we begin to head back upstairs, but not before I spot this furry little devil.
All in all, I had a blast at the Calico Cat Cafe. On your way out, they give you a book with several pictures of every cat in the cafe and a discount card for your next visit. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it back to here during my second round in Tokyo, but I hope to be back.
Thank you to the Calico Cat Cafe, the employees, and especially the cats for a great time.
And now it's time to head to our full-course Japanese dinner here in Takayama. I'm still behind on my blogging, but I'm working on it! The next blog will be about our day trip to Kamakura and my first real look at Mount Fuji!
Day 2 - Nakamise Shopping Arcade
We leave Asakusa Kannon Temple by another gate to head to Nakamise Shopping Arcade, and I grabbed this photo because of the cherry trees.
You can't really see them, but the left side is lined with vendors. This isn't even the shopping arcade, but you can tell there's quite a bit of buying going on in this area. Strangely enough, there was also a primary school along this path, and some of the children were out playing. They were extremely cute. There was a fairly substantial gate so strangers just walking along the area couldn't get in, and several signs were posted about not taking photos. It doesn't surprise me that this is a common issue for them to deal with given the location.
We keep going and end up at the shopping arcade, which is packed with people. Moko, the tour guide, walks us through the area, pointing out things here and there. I was too busy looking and tended to forget to take pictures, but I did get a few.
Now it was time for food. It was around 3pm, and I thought it was strange since we had a welcome dinner planned for later that night. But I wasn't complaining, and neither was my stomach. Moko started leading us to a restaurant that looked like it was selling ramen and other quick dishes, but the place was packed. Lizzy, Amanda (Lizzy's mother), and I decided we would go elsewhere and look around, so we broke off from the group and explored.
We found a walking path known for the cherry blossoms. The next few photos were all taken along the path.
This one was actually just as you're getting to the entrance. You can see the cherry trees of the path at the very right-hand side of the shot.
Not cherry trees, but this was along the path. Supposedly this building is known for looking something like a beer mug. While strange, I don't really see it myself.
I wish now that I'd taken a movie of this shot. The cherry blossoms, or sakura, were swirling around in the wind.
Tokyo Tower in all it's glory.
This is looking back along the path that we'd just walked.
Our appetite for sakura blooms now filled, we set off to fill our bellies. As we were looking, we found this guy. I wish I could tell you what he was doing or what he was carrying, but I never was able to find out.
We finally found a place for a quick bite, but we realized we had a problem right as we ordered. We were never going to get our food in time and make it back to the bus to meet with the others. And even worse, I had left my bag and souvenirs from the Koomon on the bus, and I couldn't remember the way back. Amanda volunteered to run back with me so we could get my stuff and tell Moko that we were going to make our own way back to the hotel.
Yes, we left Lizzy at the restaurant, but we couldn't just run out on the poor staff. As it turns out, our server was quite concerned that our food was going to get cold, but we assured her that we would be right back. Thankfully we made it to the bus and back in short order, but it did begin to rain. Just enough to be annoying, but not enough to slow us down.
The food at the restaurant was good, but I forgot to get a picture of my chicken and noodle soup. Apologies to Katy and any other culinary experts out there. I've tried to get better about that over the last day or two.
Once we'd eaten, we managed to make our way back to Shinjuku via the train system. However, we were not going back to the hotel yet. We had a whole hour and a half to play with before the welcome dinner that night at the hotel, and Amanda, Lizzy, and I were on a mission.
To be continued!
You can't really see them, but the left side is lined with vendors. This isn't even the shopping arcade, but you can tell there's quite a bit of buying going on in this area. Strangely enough, there was also a primary school along this path, and some of the children were out playing. They were extremely cute. There was a fairly substantial gate so strangers just walking along the area couldn't get in, and several signs were posted about not taking photos. It doesn't surprise me that this is a common issue for them to deal with given the location.
We keep going and end up at the shopping arcade, which is packed with people. Moko, the tour guide, walks us through the area, pointing out things here and there. I was too busy looking and tended to forget to take pictures, but I did get a few.
Now it was time for food. It was around 3pm, and I thought it was strange since we had a welcome dinner planned for later that night. But I wasn't complaining, and neither was my stomach. Moko started leading us to a restaurant that looked like it was selling ramen and other quick dishes, but the place was packed. Lizzy, Amanda (Lizzy's mother), and I decided we would go elsewhere and look around, so we broke off from the group and explored.
We found a walking path known for the cherry blossoms. The next few photos were all taken along the path.
Our appetite for sakura blooms now filled, we set off to fill our bellies. As we were looking, we found this guy. I wish I could tell you what he was doing or what he was carrying, but I never was able to find out.
We finally found a place for a quick bite, but we realized we had a problem right as we ordered. We were never going to get our food in time and make it back to the bus to meet with the others. And even worse, I had left my bag and souvenirs from the Koomon on the bus, and I couldn't remember the way back. Amanda volunteered to run back with me so we could get my stuff and tell Moko that we were going to make our own way back to the hotel.
Yes, we left Lizzy at the restaurant, but we couldn't just run out on the poor staff. As it turns out, our server was quite concerned that our food was going to get cold, but we assured her that we would be right back. Thankfully we made it to the bus and back in short order, but it did begin to rain. Just enough to be annoying, but not enough to slow us down.
The food at the restaurant was good, but I forgot to get a picture of my chicken and noodle soup. Apologies to Katy and any other culinary experts out there. I've tried to get better about that over the last day or two.
Once we'd eaten, we managed to make our way back to Shinjuku via the train system. However, we were not going back to the hotel yet. We had a whole hour and a half to play with before the welcome dinner that night at the hotel, and Amanda, Lizzy, and I were on a mission.
To be continued!
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