As a Teacher i always keep learning. And what can be a better way to learn than travel to a new country?
I was visiting Hong Kong on a business trip , when my friend Saro who lives in Tokyo suggested a trip to Japan.
The timing was perfect because our trip (March 28th to April 1st) coincided with the Sakura season.
Tokyo was awesome with beautiful Sakura everywhere, good food and cultural experience.
Visiting Tokyo
Tokyo has so much to offer to everyone. Visit Japan-guide.com to learn about different things and select according to your liking.
Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji (FujiSan) was on our minds since we started planning for Tokyo. Fuji is visible from many parts of Tokyo.
On our first day, we started early and rented a car near to the train station Nishi-kasai.
Note : Japan cars are left-hand-driven.
We headed towards Shiraito water-falls near Tokyo. It was around 3 hours drive and on the way we saw the Majestic Mount Fuji or as Japanese call it FujiSan.
FujiSan is visible from many places. It can also be seen from Shinkasen train when you travel from Tokyo to Kyoto or Osaka.
The Waterfalls was absolute magic with water flowing from all the places. This place also has some good restaurants and Souvenirs shops.
Five lakes of Mount Fuji
Our next stop was Fuji 5 lakes.
The Fuji 5 lakes lies at the northern base of Mount Fuji. These lakes are Lake Kawaguchiko, Lake Yamanakako, Lake Saiko, Lake Shojiko and Lake Motosuko.
All the lakes were breathtaking
Day Trip to Kyoto
Kyoto was a former capital of Imperial Japan. It is a place of countless shrines and temples. Kyoto has so much to offer that it will take some 3-4 days to cover all the destinations. Since we had only four days in Tokyo, we made a day trip.
Going to Kyoto is easy by Shinkansen. Shinkansen is a high-speed bullet train and it is in itself an attraction due to the speed and comfort. Shinkasen is a network of trains. On each Shinkansen line there are express, semi express and local trains. These trains have different names too. The express train from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka is called Nozomi.
We took the the early Shinkasen Nozomi train to Kyoto which is on Tokyo-Shin-Osaka line. It takes around 2.5 hours to reach Kyoto. Don’t forget to take Bento box from the train station. Bento boxes are lunch boxes and have its own culture and story. Bento box comes with different options.
Kyoto Site Seeing
The best way to see Kyoto is to purchase a day bus pass and follow the suggested Routes. Both of these you will get from the information centre located at the Kyoto train station. The bus station is conveniently located outside the train station.
Kyoto has some beautiful shrines and palaces
Food and Drink
Tokyo is a place for food lovers. There are different styles of food.
Ramen Restaurants, some times called Ramen-ya are a good place, if you want to finish your lunch or dinner quickly. It consists of wheat-flour Japanese noodles in broth.
You will love the taste of Japanese curry (Coco Ichibanya). It is made from curry roux or curry powder base. Vegetables such as carrot and onion are cooked with a meat of choice. We took the vegetarian curry with eggs and it was awesome.
Your Tokyo trip cannot finish without the tasting some awesome Sushi. We visited Tsukiji Nippon Fish Port Market and it was lined with hundreds of fish and Sushi vendors and restaurants. This placing was buzzing with tourists. There were so many kinds of sushi.
Alcohol lovers will like Sake of Japan. It is also called Japanese rice wine and is made by fermenting rice.
Souvenir Shopping
Tokyo has lot of market places but the one we liked was near Asakusa Temple. Asakua temple is a 7th century Seso-ji Buddhist temple. The temple is spectacular . There are tons of shops in this area with lots of beautiful souvenirs.
Some more important information
Tokyo – How to get there
Since we were visiting Tokyo from Hong Kong, we took a flight from HongKong express. Convenient flights are available to Tokyo from all parts of the world. From Hong Kong it is roughly 3.5 to 4 hours journey.
Tokyo has 2 airports – Narita (NRT) and Haneda (HND). Narita is around 40 miles from the Tokyo city centre and Haneda is about 10 miles. You can choose which ever is convenient to you.
Japan is a big country to visit, we selected Tokyo because we had only 4 days. Tokyo has enough to keep you occupied for 4 days. You can also fly to Osaka.
Stay
Staying in Tokyo can be expensive since it is a capital city and always crowded. Airbnb is a good option. We booked our stay from Airbnb. It provided us with an independent stay with one bedroom, kitchen and all the amenities.
We stayed in “Nakakasai”. It was near the train station Nishi-kasai and was very convenient for travel. From Narita airport it was around an hour by bus.
Currency
One USD is around 105 Tokyo Yen. It is better to use credit card where ever you can. You can also take currency from your home country. ATMs can also be used but make sure that your bank don’t charge you any transaction fee.
Language
Language can be a challenge through out Japan. Majority of the people don’t speak in English. Only Train station staff and tourist destination employees speak minimal English. It can be a challenge if you have to ask for directions etc.
I came across an interesting blog on why can’t Japanese people speak English .
We didn’t face any language problems due to our friend who was well versed in Japanese. It is recommended to have some local acquaintances in Japan.
But none-the-less it should not dampen your spirits as Japan is a wonderful land.
