Day 7 - Asakusa, Ueno

1 April 2009

Woke up this morning feeling rather sad, as it was our last full day in Japan. Seven short days - hardly enough to experience all that Japan has to offer!

Anyhow, had a great breakfast of toast, salad and some soy + seaweed pasta (mmm fusion), then bid a fond farewell to our inn, and the larger-than-life Mount Fuji.

Thick buttered toast and a surprisingly good salad.

Leaving our mark on the board at Kawaguchiko Station Inn

Left Kawaguchiko for Shinjuku by bus, me sleeping the whole way through (and probably drooling on mummy's shoulder). Hoho. ^^ Transferred straight to Asakusa to dump our luggage at the Asakusa Riverside Capsule Hotel... wheeee capsules! Think that was the highlight of our day. But more on that later. ;)

The capsule hotel - almost right beside Sumida river

We were saving this day for more cherry blossom viewing, as we hoped that there would be more in bloom. However, coz of the dreary rainy weather... most trees had not reached full bloom yet. They were still pretty though!

Strolled leisurely down Sumida river and this is what we saw:

a canopy of sakura...

peach blossoms

geishas on a horseman-drawn cart xD

the Asahi beer building with golden "beer foam" on top!

words... fail me.

Lunchtime! Decided to walk into KFC as I had previously seen a commercial on their new limited-time-only Shoyu Fried Chicken... and, susceptible as I am to advertising... I just HAD to try it out. It didn't disappoint. It is, singularly, the most delicious and succulent piece of fried chicken I have EVER had, anywhere. Shoyu is soy sauce... and this piece of boneless chicken was marinated thoroughly in soy sauce, covered in crispy (and just slightly spicy) batter... every bite was amazing! Now KFC will never be the same for meeeeeeeeeee! *wails* Haha. I liked it so much that I went back the same evening to buy somemore... and it was sold out. :( *wails somemore* They should definitely make it part of their regular menu... and this item should definitely come to Malaysia. Wishful thinking, I know. Anyway, I've rambled on too long bout a piece of chicken already. Feast your eyes on the pic! It tastes better than it looks. Haha!

Finger lickin' goooooooood.

Strolled down Nakamise street again, bought enough senbei (rice crackers) to feed a nation, and ate more soft serve icecream. Can you believe the variety of flavours they have for soft-serve icecream? There was caramel, yam, red bean, custard pudding, tangerine, plum, rum and raisin, chestnut, melon, almond jelly, cappuccino, rose, sweet potato and even TOFU! How does tofu icecream taste like? I didn't wanna pay 300 yen to try. ;)

Ridiculously wide selection... we chose green tea and grape! Yum.

Next stop, Ueno, and the first thing we did was go to that delicious potato stall and buy more of that. Watched ducks paddle contentedly along Shinobazu Pond, pretty cherry blossoms reflecting off the water... braved the crowd again to get a lifetime's worth of views of sakura on the main street (who knows when we'll see them again)...

mayo, soysauce, seaweed, butter, potatoes...

these are a list of my favourite things (ala Julie Andrews)

Tranquil.

me, the crowd, and our huge bag of senbei

close to sunset...

swaying gently in the breeze...

Walked back to Ueno station and wandered around Ameyoko for a while. Ameyoko is this market of sorts which used to be a black market for American goods. Now it's lined with seafood stalls, and an assortment of knickknacks. A pretty cool atmosphere... every now and then a train passes by right above your heads... lots of seafood sellers trying to out-shout each other with their cheap deals... plenty of folk rushing here and there.

Before we knew it, night had fallen. Returned to Asakusa, all the while feeling rather wistful... and cheered ourselves up wih a good meal of Unagi at Unatoto. Mummy had the Unachazuke (or something like that... can't remember), which is similar to ochazuke, except with bite-sized pieces of unagi on top! Good stuff. Comes with a pot of green tea to pour into your bowl and sort of eat it like porridge, if you like. Good stuff. I had something similar, except that it was freaking spicy, and that the tea was replaced with a soy-based soup.

Who knew that eel could taste so good?

Then it was off to a konbini for more junk food to buy back home, and back to the capsule hotel for the novel experience of a lifetime! We chose Asakusa Riverside Capsule Hotel coz there aren't that many capsule hotels available for women - the other one available is in Akihabara, which is 1000 yen more expensive.

The whole experience was kinda fun. We purchased our "one night's stay" tickets from the vending machines, stuffed our shoes in the shoe lockers and went up to our floor (women only!) with anticipation.

Keep Out, man! You hear that?! Lol.

What greeted us inside was a warm and dimly-lit walkway with dozens of capsules on each side. Some were already occupied... with people reading, talking in whispers, watching tv, sleeping. Found our capsules and began to camwhore and giggle as quietly as possible. :)

Mummy posing Japanese style...

When in Japan, do as the Japanese do. ^^

My capsule on top and mum's below

After goodness-knows-how long of camwhoring, we changed into the capsule-issued pajamas (cute! haaa) and trooped off to the public baths to clean ourselves. The public bath was uncomfortably congested. Eh. This place has no private showers, so if you're squeamish then you'll either have to skip showering or... skip showering. ;D

Capsules galore and mummy in pajamas

Enjoyed the view of Sumida River from the top of our hotel for a while, then went back into mummy's capsule to hang out and watch some tv. Two of us could fit comfortably in one capsule. The capsules were nowhere near as small and claustrophobic as I thought they would be.

And thus ended our last night in Japan. :)

Goodnight, Tokyo.

You are dearly missed.

Day 6 - Kawaguchiko

31 March 2009

Again, got up at some unearthly hour coz the journey from Hakone to Kawaguchiko takes about 3 hours (inclusive of the transit times at two other bus stops). We spent about 20 minutes waiting in the cold for our next bus to arrive -- see below -- so poor thing! Haha...

waiting in the freeeeezing cold... *brrr*

Being the sleepyhead that I am, I slept through most of the journey. Opened my eyes at one point to notice that it was SNOWING. Snow in springtime... when it's supposed to be warm! *feels betrayed* Anyways, by the time we got to Kawaguchiko station, it was already a warm, fuzzy 7 degrees. Haha... shivered all the way to our hotel, Kawaguchiko Station Inn, which thankfully was almost directly opposite the bus station. Left our luggage there, and decided it was too cold to do anything but EAT, so went in search for something soupy to warm ourselves up.

Kawaguchiko is famous for its Houtou Noodles - which is almost similar to ban-mee in its texture, cooked in a hearty soup of pumpkin + potato + other vegetables, and served in a claypot. We walked into this restaurant called Miyashita, a quaint little restaurant managed by a cute elderly couple, and plonked ourselves down for some hearty goodness. I don't know if it's because we were too cold, or too hungry, but the Houtou noodles tasted really really good. :) The nice old aunty gave us some free daikon (pickled radish) as well, and it's the best daikon I've ever eaten.

Claypot!

Good stuff.

The most YUMMY Daikon EVAR!

Feeling all warm and toasty, we made our way to Lake Kawaguchi, the biggest of the five lakes at the foot of Mount Fuji. It was surprisingly quiet - very few tourists around, unlike the tourist trap that was Hakone the day before. Wandered about for a bit, then decided to make our way up to Mount Tenjo via the "Mt. Kachi Kachi Ropeway" to get a better view of the elusive Mount Fuji.

Mount Tenjo seems to have been designed for little kids - the cable car and the platform up on the mount have cute little racoon and rabbit figures scattered all around. ^^ We met the most adorable child on the way up there, he kept saying "kowai... kowai yo..." (which means "scary")when the ropeway swayed back and forth in the wind. There's this bell that you can ring when you get to the top of Mt Tenjo as well... and he kept hogging it. I WANT ONE! Haha... Guess I have to find myself a Japanese husband first. ;)

Ze entrance.

The racoon that took us up the mount ^^

Lake Kawaguchi

The cutest kid EVAR!

An obscured Mount Fuji and the Bell

How cool are Japanese vending machines? It sold dimsum, hot dogs, takoyaki, yakisoba, fried onigiri and potato chips. o.O

Mount Fuji in hiding >.<

Me eating a Yukimi Daifuku (almost like mochi with icecream)

Spent about 2 hours up there, waiting for the stupid clouds obscuring Mount Fuji to drift away. They drifted away quite fast, but new ones came. So we never had a perfect view of Mount Fuji, but we still had a nice relaxing time anyway, amusing ourselves with the antics of the cute little kid I mentioned above.

For the rest of our afternoon, we wandered aimlessly around the lake. This had to be the day we rushed around the least... it was good though, as the 5 days of rushing around had started to take its toll on us.

Mummy and the lake

(my gosh my captions are so boring and unoriginal...

creativity, what rock are you hiding under?)

My attempt at an artistic shot. Haha. Absolute FAIL.

The epitome of peace

Some super energetic Japanese exercising. Could hear their voices from far across the lake.

Made our way back to the hotel and guess what? Our room was a ROOM with a VIEW! We could see Mount Fuji from our window weih... pretty! I think we sat in front of our window for 30 minutes... just admiring the scenery. Bathed in their indoor bath - also with a view of Mount Fuji. The water here was freaking hot. I was in the bath for about 5 minutes and I could feel all the steam going up to my head already... got up, and wobbled faintly to the exit. Haha... think I would've fainted if I stayed in there longer.

Our spectacular view

Steamy!

Dinner time! Got out of our hotel in time to see the sun set... and by this time the clouds had completely disappeared! Mount Fuji was at its best... its snow capped tip set against the blue sky - magnificent!

Mount Fuji, thou art beautiful

The station's not bad either

The station and the Mount

Closeup!

Took 10000x pics, then made our way back to Miyashita again (yes we loved it that much), this time to try other things. I had the fried pond smelts and mummy had the wild vegetable pilaf rice. SO GOOD. The old uncle was so cute... he shuffled back and forth to give us tea, a heater, our food, etc, while the old aunty was busy whipping up the meals in the kitchen. Pond smelts are a type of fish... Deep fried to perfection, served with rice, miso soup, a bed of cabbage with Japanese mayo (yum), and more daikon (yumyum). Mummy's wild vegetable pilaf rice may not have looked impressive, but it was freaking delicious. Mouth-watering. It just looks like any other fried rice, but it's so good lah. Must be the sushi rice and the type of soy sauce they use... I don't know. We couldn't figure out why it was so addictive. Haha. Washed the great meal down with more Soft serve Icecream - strawberry and black sesame!

One little, two little, three little FISHIES

*drool*

Icecream!

More Japanese snacks - clockwise from topleft - Calbee potato chips, Mitsuya Cider (waaaaay better than Apple Cider), fruit-flavoured Calpis Water, Strawberry Pudding (again, haha), Baskin and Robbins flavoured Chocolate, peach flavoured sweets.

おわり

Day 5 - Hakone

30 March 2009

Got up at an unearthly hour (read: 6.30am) to beat the infamous rush hour horde at Shinjuku Station, our transit stop on the way to Hakone. Had to bid a sad farewell to Ryokan Kangetsu and Chidoricho station though. After just 4 days, we had definitely developed some sort of attachment to those two places. :( But it was exciting too - coz there would be a change of scenery - we were going to Hakone (箱根), a touristy area famous for it's Onsen (hot springs), among other things.

To those who are travelling to Japan who intend to make a trip to Hakone, I strongly recommend getting the Hakone Free Pass or Fuji Hakone Pass. As we were going to cover both the Hakone and Fuji Five Lakes area over 3 days, we bought the Fuji Hakone Pass (7200 yen per person = approx RM280). This pass is convenient and it covers almost all of the modes of transport around Hakone and Fuji five lakes (as well as the trip to and from Shinjuku Station), so you end up saving money on transport. We also decided to follow the Hakone Round Trip course recommended by Japan-Guide, which lets you utilise all the different types of transport (train, cable car, ropeway, boat, bus, even walking, haha) while seeing all the different sights that Hakone has to offer.

Step 1:
Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto (箱根湯本) by train

Got to Hakone-Yumoto at 10-ish. Our hotel, Kappa Tengoku (which means "heaven of water sprites", FUAH so whimsical), was located just above Hakone-Yumoto station, so it was quite convenient. Had previously heard so many bad reviews about the gazillion steps you have to climb to get to the hotel, but it wasn't that bad lah. If a 54 year old woman can do it (hehe Mummy roxxors!), so can you! :) Left our luggage there, bought ourselves a yummy brunch consisting of Onsen Manju (red bean paste bun thingy), Gyoza (yes, the love affair with Gyoza continues), and coffee. Sat on a bench overlooking nature, and mused about how good life was. Haha. (How sucky it is in contrast, now that I am back at work! Aisehman...)

Lugging our luggage uphill

Mummy pointing at the number of steps leading to our hotel. Easy Peasy!

Manju, and the cool machine that makes it

Mummy enjoying her daily coffee fix

Gyoza lurrrve

Steps 2, 3 and 4:
Hakone-Yumoto to Gora by train
Gora to Sounzan by cablecar
Sounzan to Owakudani (大湧谷) by ropeway

Hakone is brimming with tourists. Tourists mean congestion. And man, was it congested in the train/cable car areas. More congested than any of the trains that we took in Tokyo. Encountered this cute little ang-moh family in the cablecar - the cute little kids were speaking in Mandarin. Apparently they live in China. Cool. The ropeway was fun, we got a pretty good view of Mount Fuji.

Finally arrived at Owakudani, which is a volcanic valley that spews sulphuric fumes. Quite cool, albeit stinky. The view of Mount Fuji from Owakudani was so clear! Owakudani is famous for its Kuro tamago, which, literally translated, means black eggs. Everyday, huge amounts of eggs are dipped into the volcanic springs - volcanic springs hot enough to cook the eggs. They come out black, stinky, and generally not very appealing to the eyes, but still good. Not much different from the regular boiled egg. You eat it for the novelty, I guess. We had a second brunch (gluttons!) here, eating a total of 5 eggs between the two of us. (And this is where our cholesterol levels shot sky high and never came back down again. Hehe.). The food stalls also sold EGG-flavoured soft-serve icecream (which Japanese call "soft cream"), so obviously we had to try it. Tastes like custard. Good stuff!

Owakudani... steamy!

Me, a slightly obscured Mount Fuji, and ropeway

Smoke gets in your eyeeeeeesssss

Dude dipping hundreds of eggs into the boiling water

Hello, cholesterol

Hello Kitty makes an appearance in a black egg costume! Haha.
I'm holding the Egg-flavoured soft-serve. Yum.

Steps 5 and 6:
Owakudani to Togendai by ropeway
Togendai to Hakone-Machi by boat (via Lake Ashi (芦ノ湖))

At Togendai, boarded a "pirate ship" and took a leisurely 30 minute cruise through Lake Ashi. It was quite enjoyable, despite the freaking cold and the relentless winds that whipped our hair all over the place (took me 5 mins to untangle my hair later). Couldn't see the elusive Mount Fuji from the lake though, which was a shame. Got off the boat at Hakone-Machi, which has a cute little souvenir shop that sells the cutest soft toys.

Ahoy Matey!

Shades of blue

Chibi Mount Fujis. SO adorable.

I was very tempted to buy this. It's a PEACH! Kawaiiiiii....

Steps 7 and 8:
Hakone Machi to Moto-Hakone by foot
Moto-Hakone back to Hakone-Yumoto by bus

From Hakone-Machi, we walked around Lake Ashi and walked through the ancient cedar tree-lined path to Moto-Hakone. It was a peaceful and relaxing walk, the warm sun glinting prettily off the lake's surface... sunlight creeping through a canopy of towering trees... almost enchanting.

Trees from ages past...

Back at Hakone-Yumoto, we went searching for Hatsuhana, which serves Zaru soba, cold buckwheat noodles dipped into a soy-based sauce. Apparently, Hakone is quite well-known for its Zarusoba. I had the Tenzaru Soba (basically tenpura + zarusoba), mummy wanted something warm so she had the Tenpura Soba (basically tenpura + soba in hot dashi soup). Haha, how unoriginal of us. Didn't dare to try the tsukimi soba - which is soba with a RAW EGG (eww), nor the soba in yam-based broth (it looked mushy). We liked what we ordered though. Delicious...

Look at the size of that prawn!

The spider-like thing you see is deep-fried soba. Yum!

Mummy continues her love affair with Sakura

Hakone-yumoto is pretty at night. That's Hatsuhana on the left

Bought some snacks for dessert (and also as the next day's breakfast), and headed back to our hotel. Kappa Tengoku has an onsen (open air hot spring bath) that's open to the public, and no private shower facilities, so we had to bathe out in the open (all exposed and vulnerable in the freezing cold), then dip ourselves in the toasty hot springs. There were a couple of people there lah, crowded... But then, we figured that since they were strangers we would have no chance of ever meeting again in this life, and since they had the same parts we had, that we should stop being so embarassed. :) It turned out to be pretty relaxing. Went back to our room, watched some Japanese TV (Arashi was on... woohoo!), and fell asleep.

Introducing Japanese snacks: Clockwise from TopLeft: Calpis Water (almost like Yakult but not quite; much better), Caramel flavoured bread snack (almost like croutons, but sweet), more PUDDING, Strawberry cream daifuku (kinda like Mochi...), cheese-flavoured macaroni snack. I LOVE JUNK FOOD.

Hot springs sans naked people

Domokun makes a special appearance in the blog again! Haha.
Travelling in style weih... ^^

Next post - Kawaguchiko. Will probably only post after my Japanese exam which is next Tuesday. Gotta start cramming! :)