Blog 27 – Ameyayokocho

Luckily, we made it to the subway station just in time after our tour of the Imperial Palace to avoid the rain as once we got to the station, it started to rain. We decided to head over to Ameyayokocho for lunch as it is right beside Ueno Park. Ameyayokocho is an interesting area as the street is lined with people selling fish, fruits and other foods as well as goods such as shoes and clothing. Despite the rain still coming down a little, there were a lot of people around. Ironically, as soon as we bought one of those clear plastic, almost disposable umbrellas, the rain stopped! I would recommend anyone going to Ueno Park to make a stop over to Ameyayokocho.

mmmmm…lunch!

If you ever get a craving for fruit, this place will provide you with your fix. The fruit tasted incredible (compared to the ones found in our local grocery stores) and the prices weren’t as bad as fruit in the department stores. Sure it wasn’t packaged and presented as nicely, but it tasted the same!

Blog 26 – Imperial Palace

The day after our day trip to Nikko, we decided to have a more relaxing time by spending the day visiting more sites in Tokyo, namely the Imperial Palace and Ueno Park. The day started off a little troubling as the weather forecast was for rain all day and considering a lot of the places we were going was outdoors, we were a little worried. When we got to the palace, I was amazed, not just by the architecture or the garden within, it was so surprising to see this in the middle of Tokyo. There was such a contrast between the palace and the city that surrounded it. Our visit was cut a little short as we started to hear thunder in the background so we decided it was best to start moving towards the subway station before it started to rain. If you are planning a trip to Tokyo, I would definetly recommended checking this place out.

Blog 25 – Edo Wonderland Pictures

This was taken when I went into the store asking if they sold a shoji board. She replied with several sentences, of which the only part I understood was “no”

Always sticking her tongue out at me!

It was a really sunny day, too bad there wasn’t more people.

But then I wouldn’t be able to take clear shots like this if it was crowded

Or this.

Blog 24 – Kinugawa Onsen Station

So when we were finished at Edo Wonderland, we took a bus to Kinugawa Onsen Station. The station and surrounding onsen area looked really great. As an onsen area it gave off a really relaxing feeling. We had about an hour before we had to catch our train so we decided to walk around a bit and take a few pictures. I would really like to come back here to a onsen on our next trip to Japan.

This was really interesting, they actually had a little mini onsen in front of the train station where you could soak your feet.

We thought this was neat, they actually list the amount of time it would take to walk to particular locations.

On our bus ride to Kinugawa Onsen Station from Edo Wonderland

Blog 23 – Nikko Edomura

Interestingly, our tour group split up after visiting the shrine as the majority of the group went to Kegon waterfall. Although we contemplated going with that group since they were to travel up Irohazaka (INITIAL D!!) but we thought that going to this amusement park would be interesting. Only 3 other people actually went with us to the park where as the other 30 odd people went the Kegon waterfall. When we got to Edo Wonderland we were actually surprised that it was almost completely empty! Sadly because we got there later in the day, we didn’t have much time to look at all the shows before the park closed. We did catch the outdoor ninja performance which was entertaining (the ojisan guy was the best). One nice thing though was that because the park was pretty much empty, it gave us a lot of chances to take pictures which I’ll upload later. If you’ve never gone and you are in the area (it’s an onsen area afterall) it’s worth taking a look at.

Blog 22 – Toshigu Shrine

After a couple hours, we finally got to the Toshigu Shrine in Nikko. This shrine was dedicated to the first shogun of the Tokugawa era and famous for its carving of the “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” monkeys. We had a guided tour for the first hour and the second hour we were left to explore the area alone. The architecture of the shrines was incredible! You really do need a couple of hours at least at the shrine in order to see and take pictures of everything since the area was pretty large.

On a side note, during our drive up to the shrine at one of the washroom stops, we actually saw a sakura (cherry blossom) tree. Since we went in mid May, this was the only sakura tree we saw the entire trip. Next time hopefully, we can make it in April when they are in full bloom!

At the parking lot, there was a little water fountain.

The “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” monkeys!

A picture from further in the shrine.

A little photographic art.

Blog 21 – Nikko and Ninja

On our 7th day, we booked a tour with Sunrise again, this time it was for their Nikko and Ninja package. The trip consisted of a visit to the Toshigu Shrine, lunch and then a trip to the Nikko Edomura amusement park. Our day started really early in the morning, so we were only able to eat when the bus driver made a small stop at a traveler’s area just off the highway. We grabbed a couple of beverages and the bear snacks from this food stand. They weren’t really anything special, it was essentially doughnut batter that’s cooked into small little bear shapes, however they did taste good. Nothing like doughnuts for breakfast!

Blog 20 – Takoyaki!!!

One thing that I craved for about a month before our trip was takoyaki. In Toronto (Markham) there was a takoyaki store at First Markham Mall, but that place closed down earlier this year. Ever since then I haven’t had takoyaki, so when we were walking around near Harajuku I had to get it. I’m glad I did because this place made it like 100x better than the place back in Toronto. Bonnie said she didn’t really like it all that much, which was fine since that meant more for me.

Blog 19 – Harajuku excursion

After a pretty lengthly walk from Shinjuku, we finally found our way over to Harajuku. While we read on the internet about how busy Harajuku was, it was still pretty suprising how so many people could fit down one narrow lane. I kept thinking to myself that if just one person fell, it would be a complete domino effect! We did try a crepe from one of the stands here, while it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t as good as some of the others ones I’ve had. Out of all the meals/snacks in Japan, I would probably say it was my least favorite.

Below is just one of the pictures we took in Harajuku to show how busy it was for a weekday!

Blog 18 – Lost in Shinjuku

So rather than using the transit system to get to Harajuku, we decided to walk there after a quick snack in Shinjuku. If you ever have the chance, go to this cafe! They make a really good cafe mocha (much better than Starbucks) It was a good thing we ordered a large, the long walk to Harajuku was killer. Although we had to take a couple looks at the guide book and map, we did eventually find our way out of Shinjuku and on the right road towards Harajuku.