lisairinajjong-blog

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August 6th & 7th

Yesterday, I was only strolling a little through Kawasaki, did some window shopping and relaxed most of the day. Part of it outside at tama river, part of it simply inside. It didn’t happen much. In the evening, I made the last skype call with my family. In less than four days, they’ll be here~ Today, I first took the train to the Kodokan. In march, I’ve already been there and bought two balck belts. Sadly, the wrong ones. So, I had to go there again. When I arrived at the shop, I took a picture of the belts they sold and walked back to the closest spot where I had wifi, which was a seven eleven shop. There, I waited about 1 hour for the reply before I could walk back and buy this time the right belts. From there, I walked on to Akihabara. I wasn’t that far and I arrived rather quick. I visited almost every shop there, looking at souvenirs, figures, plush and everything else they sold. I bought some stuff for my friends, but couldn’t find all I wanted to get. The next three days will probably be filled with shopping, since it’s the first real opportunity I have. I won’t have to carry everything with me now, I’ll have more space to store everything away and I don’t have to be so careful with my money anymore. Only 18 days are left until I’ll be back home (holy fuck that was fast) and I am happy and excited, but also sad. I bet I’ll want to stay here longer, once my family will be here as well. Especially in Tokyo, I feel great and somehow home in general, so right now, I am not as homesick as I was in other cities. Right now, I am rather sad, that everything will be over so soon. I seriously feel like I could continue living like this forever.

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August 5th

Today, I had to leave the Hostel rather early. I still had time to eat breakfast, but afterwards, I had to hurry. My bus left at 9:40 and was supposed to arrive in Shinjuku at 18:50. However, on our way we worked up to a delay of more than one hour (quite surprising, taking into account the strictness and punctuality they have here, where delay usually means 10-60 seconds). So, I arrived around 8 pm in Shinjuku and now had to take the subway back to Kawasaki (yes we passed that part of Tokyo on our way and even had a stop there, but I wasn’t sure if my Hostel was really there or not, so I had to stay on the bus for one more hour until we arrived in Shinjuku, look up the location of my Hostel and then get back to Kawasaki). Having arrived two hours later than necessary, I soon found my Hostel in a rather lively but nice neighbourhood. There’s a shopping street complex close and the station is only a walk of about 10 minutes from here. However, I am quite tired from the long trip and really need to sleep.

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August 4th

Today was my last day in Kyoto and I had only four things left to do: Jogging, visiting the imperial palace, doing my laundry and packing my backpack. I did everything in precisely this order. I got up early after only a few hours of sleep and did my jogging. Then took a shower, changed, had breakfast and after that I started walking to Kyoto National garden. I had already been there before. Together with my friend. However, the palace was already closed that time, so I had to go there again. I’ve read that you had to make a reservation to get in there, but when I arrived, I simply could enter. There was no que and I didn’t even had to pay an entrance fee, which was surprising, but great. The palace area was beautiful. The buildings impressive and all the trees, bushes, flowers, everything there was stunning. A perfect garden around some amazing buildings. I spend at least one hour in there, having a look at the buildings as well as the surrounding nature. At one part, there was even a pond which also contained two bridges, forming a stunning, beautiful and perfect Japanese garden. I couldn’t stop looking at that. I’ve always been fascinated by the beauty of Japanese gardens, always containing flowers, trees and bushes around a pond or a lake, with bridges, stone decorations, usually water plants and koi. Beautiful from every angle. Perfect no matter where you stand. Stunning, breath-taking, magnificent, marvellous. The heat and humidity finally made me want to leave and so, I walked back to my hostel, buying a Matcha latte frappe on the way. After that, I took a shower, did the laundry and packed everything, just as planned. Now only a few small things are left (and I even managed to fit the three new Yukata as well as the Obi inside my backpack).

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August 3rd

Today, I made a day trip to Arashiyama. It’s a very beautiful part at the outer parts of Kyoto. To get there, I had to take the bus and on my way to the bus stop, I happened to find the shopping streets, my parents and I had visited two years ago. I made a mental note to take the same way back to this area (which is rather close to my hostel) and continued to walk to the bus stop. After about one hour, I arrived at Arashiyama. Even though there were quite a few people, it didn’t feel crowded, because the streets were wide and to both sides were various small streets to stroll around or huge temple areas to visit, as well as shops and cafes. First, I walked through the bamboo forest and wandered around some small streets with beautiful little houses and a lot of temples, shrines and nature. I especially enjoyed this part of Arashiyama, since it was so different from all the other parts of Kyoto with rather modern and big houses. When I had walked a whole round, I took the path through the bamboo forest back to the main street. Here, I jumped into almost every shop and simply looked at all the goods they had there, dreaming of buying them all. At the main street was also a temple, I wanted to visit and the whole area of it was amazing! Maybe the surprisingly blue sky did a lot for this effect as well, but the temple ground was beautiful! The buildings were traditional and pretty and I took my time there, walking trough every gate I could find, exploring everything around there. From this temple, I continued walking at the main street and crossed a river. Once again, the blue sky did a lot to make the view perfect! It was reflected in the clear water and all together was simply stunning. Breathtaking. I couldn’t get enough of this. I walked to various places, only to get a slightly different view on the river, the mountains, the boats. Sooner or later, I decided to continue and walked on to the last spot: the monkey park. I bought a ticket and started climbing the mountain. Luckily, the path was in a forest, so the trees as well as the shades kept the area cooler than the outside. It made walking up a lot easier. After about 20 minutes, I reached the playground and from there it wasn’t far to the observation point and the area where the monkeys are. The view I had was, once again, amazing! I could look at Kyoto, the surrounding mountains and the river. Beautiful. I didn’t even expect such a view and when I reached the top and got to see this, I was impressed once more this day. I realized that the monkeys were everywhere around after I was able to turn away from that view. However, from that moment on, the monkeys had my full attention. They were unbelievably cute, some had babies with them, some were sleeping, some were eating snacks, the visitors could buy at the observatory. They were walking around freely and were coming to that area on their own will. There was no enclosure. They were free to come and leave as they wish. I enjoyed the whole day a lot. On my way back to the bus stop, I bought some shaved ice with strawberry sirup and condensed milk, which was delicious! Having taken the bus back, I arrived at the same stop where I had left, so I could visit the shopping area some more. I just walked from shop to shop again, doing some window shopping. Tomorrow, I’ll go there again and maybe buy something for real (maybe not haha).

[lisairinajjong-blog]

August 2nd

Today is another special day: My best friend’s birthday (Happy Birthday!), so we skyped quite long with various problems this evening/morning. I really enjoyed it a lot! This morning, I had amazing breakfast, which really surprised me, since this whole variety was labelled “simple breakfast” while to me “simple” means what I also had: toast, one kind of jam, coffee, tea. No butter, no sugar, no milk, nothing else. This breakfast had three kinds of bread, different sweet breads, croissants, potato salad, rice, curry, jam, butter, peanutbutter, coffee and tea. So much! And it was delicious~ Having eaten, I planned my trip and got pranked by google maps, telling me I#d need about 1:40 h for walking freaking 23km. I simply believed it and just noticed there was something wrong when I arrived at my first spot after 2 hours of walking. The first was Myoshin-ji Temple. A nice, huge temple complex with beautiful buildings, helping you forget you are in a big city and providing silence and spirituality. From there, I walked on to Ninna-ji, which had a beautiful pagoda and some nice small temple buildings inside a large garden area. I rested a little there and enjoyed the nature around before continuing to Ryoan-ji. Having looked at maps, the temple ground didn’t seem to be that big and when I arrived, it said there was an entrance fee of 500 yen, so I decided to just leave it be and continue to my next spot. However, after walking so much, I really didn’t want to take another 8-10 km to my next detination, especially because of the heat and humidity, which are killing me these days. So, I took a bus that saved me about half of the distance, so I only had to walk 4km to my next destination: The philiosopher’s walk. It was a path next to a river, surrounded by trees and bushes. Strolling around there was really nice and somehow relaxing, since the temperature seemed to be at least 5 degrees lower than elsewhere. Next to this path were some temples and shrines located, containing Honen-in and Otoyo-jinja. I also made a stop there before getting back to the path. At the end of the philosopher’s walk, I decided to continue to Nanzen-ji temple, which was close by as well. It had two very impressive, huge buildings (the main hall and the gate) and I stood there and just stared at them for a few moments before I could continue. Now I only wanted to head back, because I was thirsty (and I already drank 3 litres just on my way!), tired, sweaty and exhausted. However, I spotted a Yukata shop on my way, which had a huge “SALE” sign in their window. Of course, I couldn’t resist and walked there, just to have a look. And I found some beautiful Yukata for an amazingly great price. I took pictures, tried them on, took more pictures and then asked to guys there to put them to the side for me. Then I went, searching for wifi connection, to an underground shopping center, where I asked various people about the yukata I just had tried. I ended up deciding to try on more and then decide. So, I walked back, picked another Yukata I liked, tried it on and decided for two out of three and one Obi. The guys started talking and I understood a little: adding tax, summing it all up, lowering the price for me. So, I thought, they’d lower the price by 100 maybe, if I’m lucky 500 yen. Then, one of them sat down with me, calculating the price, telling me what it would be with tax. I nodded and then he said something really unexpected: “And we’re giving you the third Yukata as a present”. At first I didn’t know what to say. I was shocked – in a good way – and my brain stopped working for a few seconds before I thanked them several times for such an amazing present. After this, I am now happy owner of 4 Yukata and 2 Obi in total. I guess I won’t ever get enough of these. Seriously I am very happy about this.

[lisairinajjong-blog]

July 26th - August 1st

Today and somehow yesterday as well, I moved from Kawaguchiko to Kyoto via night bus. The days in Kawaguchiko have been nice and silent, but the weather wasn’t that great. It was almost all the time very cloudy, mount Fuji was hidden and a lot of times it was also raining. The only good thing with this weather was, that the clouds were so close, I felt like I could almost touch them when I was outside. It looked simply amazing! Sadly, the pictures didn’t capture this impression. Because of all the rain, I didn’t leave the Hostel a lot. It just wasn’t nice at all, since I can’t ride a bike and carry an umbrella, I always got wet when I left. The last day was pretty damn awesome in contrast to all those cloudy and rainy days. It was rather hot and the sun was shining the whole time. Sadly, I had to spend the whole day at the station, taking care of my luggage and just walked a few meters up and down the street from time to time. In the evening, my bus finally arrived and I had a bus ride until 5:30 the next morning. The bus wasn’t really special. It seemed to be a rather normal bus with blankets and USB charging ports. That’s it. According to that, I couldn’t sleep well that night (and the previous two nights haven’t been good either). So, I was happy when we arrived at Kyoto station. I took the next subway to my Hostel, walked there and was lucky someone let me in (since I arrived around 6 am and usually the doors open at 8). I was able to sit inside a cool room with wifi and rest a little. When the reception desk opened, I asked about the check in time and was informed it would be 4 pm (yeay so much more waiting…) but they could keep my luggage, so I was able to pack a few things like camera money and my documents and then leave for some sightseeing. I walked to the four parks which surround Kyoto station. Three of them had Temples and Shrines inside which I all visited. In one of them, there was a mass taking place. I tried to focus, but managed to fall asleep for a few seconds (or minutes, who knows) at least three times. At the same time, my headache started. I didn’t feel that well and tried to help with buying some cold drinks. It only worked a little. For some more time, the headache wasn’t that bad, but the longer I was in all the heat and humidity, the worse it got. Therefore, I was happy when I arrived at Kyoto station, only to notice that the building was rather open and it was still super hot and humid there. I decided to walk through some shopping centers (honestly, Kyoto station is unbelievably huge and amazing!), which had a good air conditioning and thus helped my headache a little. When I felt a little better, I walked back to the Hostel, arriving 30 minutes before check in. I thought the air conditioning would help again, but this time it got only worse with every minute. So, I was happy when I could check in, get into my room and lay down. I slept for four hours and had also taken an Aspirin. This is the only reason why I was able to shower and can now type on my laptop with only slight pain. I decided to skip jogging tomorrow so I can sleep longer and also because I just don’t feel well. Maybe I’ll just push it and change to running Thursday and Saturday, but I don’t know yet.

[lisairinajjong-blog]

July 22nd - 25th

I’ve decided to post only a few Things during my stay at mt fuji. The Most important reason is, that there os almost nothing to tell. I spend my days here relaxing, watching videos, jogging according to my schedule and riding the bike to kawagichko city where I can buy some food for my dinners here. Today was the first day I did something… a little different. I made a four hour trip by bike. First stop was Kawaguchiko station, where I bought my bus ticket for the trip to Kyoto. Next was Fuji Q Highland park. There, I asked about buying tickets in advance. My family and I will go there together and we wanted to buy the tickets now, when I am already there instead of nuying them the day we go to the park. Sadly, this wasn’t possible. So, my trip there was somehow a wasted one. Still, it was nice to just ride the bike around the lake. Last stop was the supermarket I couldn’t find last time. Today, I found it and bought hopefully enough food for the rest of my stay here.

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July 21st

This morning, I started jogging again. Afterwards, I took a shower and got some home made breakfast. It tasted great! Then I just relaxed, watched some Babylon 5 (since the wifi here is horrible, I guess I will have to rely on everything I arleady have on an USB) and slept some more. In the afternoon, I tokk a bike and checked out the area. I rode about half around the lake and bought some food for the next days. All in all the whole tour took me about 2 hours. However, I got to see mount Fuji several times today again.

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July 20th

Today, my friend left for Germany and I moved to Fujikawaguchiko, a small city near mount Fuji. Kawaguchiko is a beautiful lake and I really hope, I can take some beautiful pictures of this shy mountain. Other than that, I want to re-start my jogging schedule and marathon some series, so I have a contrast to all that walking and traveling and sight seeing I did the past month with the last break in Busan. If I am able to post, most of them will for sure be quite short from now on.

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July 19th

Today it’s the second and last time that I, Lisas‘ travelmate, will write an entry here. So…today has been my last day in this crazy but yet very precise country. And for such a day and especially if one is in Tokyo, one should do something extra ordinary cool. That’s why we went to see the three large buildings here. First the Skytree. Over 600 meter of japanese civil engineering. Definitely amazing to look at and pretty impressive. There we had a little coffee break (or a matcha latte break in Lisas‘ case). However, we forgoe to get up, since we had to take the train to our next destination. Although the original overlooks Paris, Tokyo Tower was almost mandatory. To be honest, it’s not as impressive as the Eiffel Tower, but it made it possible to take a few nice pictures (especially with the temple in front of it – if you approach from the correct side). After a little rest we continued to our final destination of todays‘ trip: the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Goverment Building. It has a nice view over the town from it’s 202 meter high public obersavtion area. I recommend to come an hour before sunset and experience how the city turns on it’s lights. From there you can then go home or to everywhere you like. We went out to have something to eat before returning back to the hotel to finally pack the luggage. Now, the last night in Japan approaches and I have to say it has been a great trip. Great country and great travelmate.

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July 18th

Today, we didn’t do a lot. Most of the day, we spend inside and in the noon, we just found out how lucky we have been to decide this: it started raining and for a while there was a heavy thunderstorm in Tokyo. Our balcony was flooded. We were really lucky that we didn’t do any of the things we thought about (all the high buildings here, Tokyo Tower, Skytree and Metropolitan Government Building). When the weather got better, we walked around a little, strolled through some parks and send some postcards to Germany. In the evening, we had another short excursion through Ryogoku and Nihombashi area.

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July 16th&17th

Yesterday, we met Juliette again. We visited Ginza area and I got another chance to have a look at these amazingly designed skyscrapers. Japans former most expensive street sure is something worth visiting. Sadly, I didn’t find the one building that looked most awesome of all – I’ve seen it once, two years ago, and tried to find it again, but failed twice. Afterwards, we took an amazing self driving tram to Odaiba. From the first car, we had an amazing view and could enjoy the trip there a lot! Having arrived, we first walked around the area, visiting the statues and monuments Japanese people copied (Lady Liberty, Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge) and joking about all the christmas decoration we found on our way. From here, we moved on to both shopping centres: Aqua City and Diver City. In Aqua City, all three of us had a special shop, we wanted to visit: Oakley, New Balance and the Jump Shop. After that, we just strolled around until we got to the Diver City building. Here, we just did some window shopping and all three of us bought some postcards (seriously they are super hard to find in Japan!). Then we moved on to the huge Gundam statue, of which sadly only the feet were left. Then we walked back to the bay, but I spotted some One Piece stuff at Fuji TV building, so I really had to go there. On the stairs, there was a picture of Luffy printed on them and on top, they had the whole Crew, some rookies, Doffy and Whitebeard and Ace as well as several small stores, the figures that are usually on the real Merry Go, Merry’s head and so many other things. I couldn’t stop freaking out in joy. I felt like I was in heaven! Soon will be the 20th anniversary and I really am looking forward to that! After I calmed down, we moved to the beach, stayed there for a while and later met a guy who needed a power pack for his phone to find his friends as well as the way back to his Air BnB, so we helped him out and just talked for about one hour. Then we watched a little of the lantern festival at Odaiba beach, but soon we noticed lightning in the sky and decided to head back as soon as possible. Still we stayed close to the station a little longer to enjoy the amazing view on Tokyo bay at night, before heading back. Today, the three of us met again and we visited Asakusa, the super crowded Temple, Nakamise dori, Kaminarimon, the Tourist Information Center and Asakusa Jinja. We also had Melon Pan with ice cream, which was delicious! Then we walked to Asakusa amusment hall and Donquichotte there and bought some snacks before continuing to Ueno Park. In there, we just sat down togehter for about two hours and tried to relax and calm down, since everything was so crowded before. In the evening, we decided to head to Akihabara, where we were simply stunned by all the overwhelming craziness, you got to see every time in TV when they talk about Japan. Akihabara is the first and only place, in which I ever experienced this site of Japan. I still love it and I’ll visit Akihabara again for sure (at least to buy loooots of Merchandise stuff). When the sun was setting, we walked Juliette to her station before returning to our Hotel as well. She’ll leave Japan tomorrow and stay in Beijing for two days before heading back to France again. I wish her a good, safe and pleasant journey, lots of fun and I hope she’ll enjoy the last days left of her vacation.

[lisairinajjong-blog]

July 15th

Yesterday, we moved from Kyoto to Tokyo. It was a nice trip, since we got to take the Shinkansen. And this time I really felt the speed. We were so damn fast! IT was amazing. In less than three hours we covered a distance of 500km. It’s unbelievable! Soon after arriving, we got to our hotel and holy shit our room is big and fancy with a balcony and even a sofa! The location is somehow perfect. Right next to a train station (yeah literally right next to it. When we walk outside, turn right, 20 m anf we’re already inside the sation)! We made ourselfs at home a little and started organizing what my friend will take with him back to Germany, before leaving again to go to a japanese festival in the evening. On our way from the station to the Shrine area, we didn’t notice anything, but as soon as we got close to the shrine, we could hear drum sounds and people having fun. Soon we got into the shrine and were surrounded by golden lanterns! There were so many and with the sun setting and the sky turning dark, everything became just more and more beautiful. Here, we also met Juliette again and spend the evening together. Most Japanese were wearing traditional yukata, which made me wish I had brought mine here as well. Around 7pm, they started dancing around a round stage. IT was amazing! On the stage there were several older ladies dancing and showing the moves, while outside everyone could join and follow the dance. And so many people did join! It didn’t matter how ole. Children, their parents, young people, adults, old people (I really wish I can move like they did when I am as old as they were) everyone joined and it looked almost perfect! Like everyone just knew the dance. Even tourists could easily join, so Juliette and I decided to participate as well (as soon as it was dark enough). Even though there were no rough movements, it was exhausting because of the heat and increasing humidity, but it was so much fun! We danced until it was over (about 8:30) and then watched the final drum performance, before walking around other parts of the shrine area. We stayed there until some guards told us they would be closing the gates. So, we left the shrine, said our goodbyes and headed back to our hotel / hostel.

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July 14th

Today was our last Day in Kyoto and we decided to visit some Temples and Shrines, including Ginkakuji (the Silver Pavillon). It was an amazing area and walking there was a good decision. We found some beautiful Spots on the way.  The whole area around Ginkakuji was beautiful and we saw a physical effect, which is super amazing, for the first time ever in our lives (it is about drops of water Dancing on water for a while before fading and becoming one with the larger one)! We spend quite a while apreciating this effect before walking on. The Garden was an amazing place from unique beauty.  The description we read before entern sure was right! After that, we took a Bus to Kyoto station. Here we bought our shinkansen Tickets for tomorrow and then walked to our last Destination: Gion area. We thought, maybe there would be a part of gion matsuri be taking place, but it was just crowded without any sign of a Festival. So we decided to head back but had to stop at the river to apreciate another natural phenomenon. The Sun was covering the Hills in a golden Light and it looked like they were glowing. It was stunning. We just stared for a while. With the Sun setting, the Light changed and coloured the clouds dark purple which was another amazing view. I don't know how long we just stood there, staring at the beautiful sight, before decided to leave the crowd behind and head back to the hotel.

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July 13th

Today, we visited Nijo Castle and the surrounding park. It was amazing to enter the palace! We walked through the corridors, got to have a look into the beautiful traditional rooms with the pretty wall paintings on golden ground, tatami inside and wood and paper doors outside. The park was a perfect Japanese garden. It was beautiful from every angle and it was like all the gardens: a place of silence and peace to free your mind and simply enjoy nature, blocking out all noises from the huge town outside. Afterwards, we continued to the Golden Pavillon (or Golden Temple) in which is no spirituality was left because of all the tourists there. Still, the building was fascinating and the surrounding park was a beautiful, perfect and stunning unique piece of art. Sadly, there were several touristic shops inside as well, so we coudn’t really relax end enjoy the beauty of this place.

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July 12th

Yesterday, we tried to start walking not in the middle of the noon-heat, which lead to us leaving the hotel around 1:30 pm. We walked to the next train station and got off at Kiyomizu-gojo station. From here, it was about 20 minutes to Kiyomizudera. On our way, we walked past several temples and had an amazing view. In addition, there were only a few tourists on this path. It was the maybe best way to get there. Having arrived, we got somehow hit by the crowd. It was immediately louder and both of us felt like there were too many people around. We had a look at all the buildings, only to notice, Kiyomizudera itself was covered since it was being restored. You could walk past the building around a path up the mountain and back to the front entrance, but both of us didn’t want to pay the entrance fee for this. So, we continued and walked through the tourist crowd next to all the souvenir shops back to the station. There we took a train to Kyoto Garden, in which Kyoto Imperial Palace and Omiya Palace are located. Sadly, both of them were already closed as we arrived. We simply walked around the park, sat down and enjoyed our music as well as nature around us. In the evening, we took a train back to our hotel and even though we didn’t walk much, both of us were tired and exhausted.

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July 11th

Yesterday, we tried walking to several sights, but the heat and the sun stopped us from doing so. We ended up just walking to Fushimiinari Shrine and all the beautiful Torii. There we tried to get away from the crowd and decided to hike to the mountain top. It was really exhausting and both of us looked like we took a shower while wearing our clothes as we reached the top. It was way too hot and humid there, but we finally made it. On our way we had a look at a waterfall, but all the spiders gave me goosebumps and I decided to flee from that place after a few seconds. Having reached the top, we took another way back down and then already thought about going back to the hotel (because we were both done for the day). However, we tried to move on to Kyoto station, but ended up taking a train there at some point because we honestly couldn’t continue walking in that heat any longer. Kyoto Station itself has a lot to visit. So, we spend about two hours there before taking the train back to the hotel, taking a shower, having dinner and then going to sleep.