Japan is always one of my favourite country to visit in Asia. Let me share with you my itinery in my last trip.
This tour took place when I last visited my parents in Hong Kong.
Day 1: Got up at 6 to get to the airport for the flight at 9am. After 3 and a half hours, finally arrived at Tokyo. Went to the toilet straight after, there are still two types of toilet(the Western and Japanese styles), like the way it was when i came a few years ago. Weather was not too bad, a bit cloudy but not too hot. Arrived at hotel at around 6 and started my Tokyo adventure after a brief break. Last time I stayed in the Ginza area which is quite commercial. This time, I stayed in Shinjuku, which is like the Soho of Tokyo. much more exciting, with lots of department stores and restaurant.
One of the places that I would definitely go when in Japan is the food section in the department stores, with a wide selection of Japanese cakes/desserts on display. Apart from the cakes, the fruit section is also a good browse. In Japan, they have this breed of grapes(dark red) which tastes like sweets and their peaches are also very nice. Obviously I got some myself to enjoy back in hotel. After getting a few things, we had dinner in the food court on the same floor. The good thing about Japan is that you can find eating everywhere without worrying about quality. After a nice meal of tempura, we headed back to the hotel for an early start the next day.
Day2: Got up early today and our first stop was Kaminarimon and the Sensoji. Kaminarimon(or Gate of Thunder) is the symbol of Tokyo and it leads to the temple of Sensoji.At the entrance of the temple, there are shops selling charms for difference purposes-safe journey, good health, getting rich, meeting the right girl/guy etc. There is also a place where you will find buckets of numbered sticks(with each representing a fortune) where you can shuffle a bucket and the stick which drops out represents your fortune, a traditional way of getting to know your future. Got one of regular fortune-still need to be patient but my time will come and I will get what I want-let's see if that's true!
After visiting the temple, did some shopping in Nakamisedori, the shopping street right in front of the Sensoji. Many shops selling souvenirs and like last time, I got myself a Kimono robe(kind of like a bath robe).
In the afternoon, we went to Ginza to begin my Burberry Blue Label mission. We first went to the seven-story main boutique in the 8th area of Ginza. Only got one handbag from there as they only have one floor for Blue Label, the others are for the normal Burberry. After that went to the department stores in the area. A good choice of gifts for friends is the scarf/handkerchiefs from the handbag /accessories section. You will find nicely designed scarves/handkerchiefs from a variety of brands like Burberry,Nina Ricci, Givenchy, YSL etc.
In the evening, we went back to Shinjuku and had a sushi dinner in one of the restaurants in Takashimaya. The restaurant is always busy as they obtain fresh supply from the Tsukiji fish market everyday. We were given a nice cup of green tea to start with, followed by a small pot of nicely steamed egg. Finally the sushi arrived which were sooooooooo delicious!!
Day3: We joined a local day tour(http://www.japanican.com/index.aspx) for the day to Mount Fuji and Hakone. It's been dormant for many years and it's last eruption was over 100 years ago.Unfortunately, the weather was bad with heavy rain so I did not manage to take a lot of pictures. You need to go through eight stations to get to the top of the mountain. We drove up to the fifth station, the highest reachable by car. It was quite foggy up there but not too cold. The station was packed with climbers as the mountain is only open to them for two months(July and August) each year. There is a post office at the station where you can buy a post card and send back home-that's of course what I did.
After lunch at Hotel Highland Resort, we headed to Hakone and on our way we visited the Peace Pagoda, a Buddhist temple. Hakone is a hot spring resort, very popular for people from Tokyo. Our first activity in Hakone was a delightful cruise on Lake Ashi, a fresh water lake formed by volcanic eruption. Very nice scenery indeed. This is followed by a ride on an aerial cableway up and down Mt.Komagatake for a sweeping view of Hakone National Park. Though the weather was not too great but the view was still clear. Then we were taken to Odawara Station to get on the Shinkansen super-express, the world famous fast train, probably faster than the TGV in France. It can reach a speed of 300 km/h and it only took us 45 minutes to get back to Tokyo.
Day 4: We began the day at the Tsukiji Fish market which is world famous. Every morning fishermen bring their catch in at about 4am and started the auction at 5. After that the fish is distributed to various sushi bars and restaurant. We arrived there at about 8:30 and all the auction and selling were completed by that time.However, we can still see the goods of various stores before and the most fascinating thing was the huge tuna fish head(refer to my album). It's a paradise for sea food lovers with a large collection of fish/shrimp/crab and other sea organisms. Next to the fish market , you will find a smaller market for various marine by-product and a street of sushi bars with supply from the auction only hours ago-very interesting indeed.
Then we headed back to Shinjuku for yet again some serious shopping. It's a nice place for shopping as all the department stores are located next to one another, e.g. Isetan(good Burberry Blue Label counter,bought some more handbags from there-haha!!!), Lumine, Takashimaya,Odakyu. I love Japanese department stores as they always have things that you want to look/buy, not to mention the food hall, very fascinating. Apart from department stores, the underground stores/street(shops next to tube/train station) are also a good choice for shopping. Next to the shopping area is the famous Kabukicho, the equivalent of the red light district of Amsterdam. Another sushi dinner in the evening ended the day.
Day 5: We joined a day tour for the day to Nikko,the resting place of Tokugawa, the first shogun of Japan.
The "Shrines and Temples of Nikko" refer to the Toshogu and Futarasan-jinja shrines and the Rinnoji temple as well as their surroundings and it's one of the world heritage sites in Japan.
Toshogu is where Ieyasu Tokugawa (ruling from 1603 to 1605) is enshrined; he was the first shogun of the Edo Shogunate, which flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries. As many as 127,000 craftsmen were involved in constructing the shrine, using the highest level of technology available at the time. The two-story "Youmei-mon Gate", decorated with brilliant colors and over 500 sculptures, is particularly famous. It is also called "Higurashi-mon (sunset gate)", because people spend all day long gazing at its beauty.
If you pass under Youmei-mon, turn right and enter the avenue leading to the shrine at the back, you will see the "Sleeping Cat" overhead, a national treasure created by legendary master Hidari Jingoro. The story behind the carving is that the cat was to ward off mice, because it is situated near the gate leading to the grave of Ieyasu. In the "Shinkyusha (sacred stable)" for the horses serving God, there is a series of 8 carved boards on which the life of a monkey is illustrated, from birth to pregnancy, caricaturing human life. One of the sculptures, the "Three Monkeys", is famous throughout the world for the "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil" poses. The carved monkeys covering their eyes, ears and mouth, respectively, were inspired by the Buddhist teaching that if we do not hear, see or speak evil, we ourselves shall be spared from evil, and the theme was chosen here in the belief that the monkeys would protect the horses from disease.
In addition to these carvings, there is also one of an elephant, purely from imagination, in a temple called "Kamijinko". The Toshogu Three Sculptures are small, but incredibly beautiful, and there is always a crowd of people in front of them.
Many pictures were taken during the day and our guide gave us a very thorough description on the various aspect and background of the shire. Very interesting indeed and learned a lot about Japanese culture. I can also see the similaries between Japanese and Chinese culture, e.g. the use of dragons in decorations, the use of Fung Shui in building houses/temples.
Next we drove up the Irohazaka zigzag driveway up the mountains. It's a drive up a zigzag driveway with 20 hairpin curves, each of which has a name like "I" "RO" "HA" (A,B,C in the Japanese alphabet, called hiragana) , which consists of 48 characters. This is followed by a Japanese style lunch next to Lake Chuzenji , at the foot of Mt.Nantai. It is known for an extra-ordinary depth, the deepest point measuring 161.5 meters.
After lunch, we went to the Kegon Waterfall. It's about 100m. (351ft.) in height , the waterfall is one of Japan's three finest waterfalls.
We got back to Tokyo at about 7 and our day ended with a nice Sukiyaki style Shabu Shabu in Kabukicho.
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