Fushimi Inari Taisha 伏見稲荷大社, Japapn Trip (Day 7)

2nd January 2015, Friday

View outside Hotel Room

Breakfast

Today, we woke up abit late and luckily, the snow had stopped, and everywhere was covered with snow. We got ready and went downstairs to have our breakfast. The breakfast buffet was with simple dishes, not much food. We took our time to have our breakfast and then we left around 9 plus. Then we took the JR line to Fushimi Inari Shrine. We had to take the JR line back to Kyoto station and then changed to the Nara line, roughly 3 stops away. The train was packed with people, and when we alighted at Inari station, it was crowded with people. It was so crowded until we can't really walk out of the station. Slowly, we made our way to the shrine, there were a lot of food stalls before the shrine. There were snow around and the ground was also very wet. For this shrine, there were 2 fox statues standing in front of the shrine (where the foxes were the messengers of the God of Rice). And here, the famous attraction was the vermilion torii gates and there was thousand of the gates. After we paid respect in the main shrine and we went walking through the torii gates. It was a long way and it covered the whole round of Mount Inari, it took us about 2 hours to climb to the top.

Fox statue covered with snow

Tojii Gates

The two dense rows of torii gates of Senbon Torii

View from Yotsutsuji intersection

We had to climb a lot of steps while walking through the many red gates, at a point, the gates were divided into 2 ways, where you can choose to go left or right. We just followed the crowd and continued walking, took some of the snow up to play along the way too...hehehe....And when i turned around to see the gates, there were words engraved in each gate. Along the way, there were other smaller shrines too where there were many people paid respect too. At half way of the route, we reached the Yotsutsuji intersection where we saw the view of whole Kyoto. We just stood there and watched the view for a few minutes, we had to left too as there were many people around. Then we continued climbing up the steps to the top and finally we reached on the top. There was a shrine on the top, and there was a very small sign at the side where it indicated we reached the top of Mount Inari. There were also candles and food offerings to pay respect for the foxes. My friend thought the food were to buy to own to eat, not for the foxes. We queued up to pay respects to the shrine, and then we walked down on the other round. But the more we climbed down, there were ice on the steps which we cannot walk down due to our rubber shoes and there were no dry steps for us to walk down too. So we had to walk back the same way how we climbed up as there were more dry steps. If not, it should be going up from one way and down the other way to complete the whole round.

High Steam Pressure to roast the chestnuts

Hot Chocolate Drinks

Snowing outside the station

Going down the steps was much easy than going up...hahaha...We bought an ice cream too and the staff gave us a fortune paper which was of course, in Japanese. We asked the staff whether is it good, then she said it was good, so we took the paper home. Then we stood there to look at the view while eating the ice cream. After that, we walked down to the food stalls. There were still many people there, cannot even walk in opposite direction. So we just walked and see what nice foods were being sold around, there were games stalls too. There was a stall selling roasted chestnuts too and they used very high pressure to cook it. We got 1 bag to try, it was not bad...Then we also got a small hot drink called Kocha, sweet and refreshing. And then we walked slowly to the train station, it was already packed with people. The staffs don't allow passengers to go into the train platforms before the train arrived. We reached back to Kyoto station at about 3 plus and then we walked in the station. Then we went into a small cafe to have some hot chocolate drinks and played with their wifi...hehehe...After staying some time in the cafe, we noticed that it has started to snow outside. Then we went outside and started to enjoy ourselves in the snow...hahaha...

Big Apples

Snow Crab..Very sweet!!

Tuna & Salmon Sashimi..Nice!!

After playing for some time, we went into Istean basement to see what to buy for dinner. And we saw snow crabs, fresh tuna and fresh salmon, etc and all looked yummy! And of course, we bought a snow crabs, a packet of tuna and salmon sashimi and a very big apple (which the apple ended up back in Singapore..hohoho). And i also bought 2 cooked chicken wings too...hehehe...After shopping for all the food, we made our way back to our hotel to eat our food. We even boiled the eggs (stole back last night) to eat...hehehe... And the snow got heavier and the wind got stronger, more fierce than last night. Luckily we came back early today. After the nice dinner, i went to have a nice hot bath again...hehhee...Tomorrow is another long day.

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Tetora Otsu

Kyoto 京都, Japan Trip (Day 6)

1st January 2015, Thursday

Lucky bags from BIC Camera

Yawn....Happy New Year, Everyone!! It's the first day of 2015 and today we need to travel down to Kyoto, our next destination. Woke up at 8 am and we just missed our reserved train to Kyoto, so we just took our time and packed our luggage and then checked out from the hotel. Then we made our way to Tokyo station. But on the transfer station, we went to BIC Camera checking out their lucky bags...hehehee...It was camera and video-cam bags, and the items were random, depending on your luck. We got 1 camera bag for $30,000 plus yen and we got a Nikon D3320 DSLR camera. We also bought a lucky bag from Adidas, which consisted of a jacket, a track pants, a scarf, a polo shirt and some more. Then we went upstairs to look for NDS console set as it was cheaper there. My friend went down to buy another camera lucky bag as we were thinking of selling the camera sets when we were back in Singapore.Anyway, we got ourselves stuck there shopping for hours before we left to the train station...hohohoho.....

Once we reached Tokyo station, we went to the JR office to make seats reservation for our next train to Kyoto, which was at 2.33 pm. Then i bought a unagi bento to eat on the train, $2310 yen..not very cheap. Then we boarded the train with all our stuffs...so many bags to carry. I just ate the bento as the train moved, we passed by Nagoya too, some towns we passed were snowing heavily and some towns we passed were having bright sunlight with no snow. We also passed by Mount Fuji, it was having snow on top of the volcano. We reached Kyoto station around 5 plus, and it was snowing in the train station (as it was open ceiling). And we went to check out the streets, there were snow everywhere and ice too. So we decided to go check in to hotel first before going for dinner, then we transferred to another JR line to go to Otsu station (2 stations away from Kyoto). It was really cold and the wind was blowing very strong. There were many posters on snow crabs, made you feel like going to eat. We were really jumping in the cold, luckily the hotel lift is connected to the JR station. But when we were going to exit from the station, there was no staffs there to show them our JR passes. We were so puzzled and my friend went to the other side to ask the staffs in the office. I got hear my friend's voice over the speakers too..hehehe...Then she came back and pressed onto the intercom machine there. We thought we can just pass through the gate, but when i tried to pass through, the gate door blocked me. Then my friend pressed on the intercom machine at the side and told the stuff that we had our JR passes and showed our passes over the camera. Then we took the lift up to level 2 to the hotel lobby.

Hotel Bed

Tracks covered with snow

Kyoto Tower

Then we checked in to our hotel and the staffs can't speak much English well but we still can understand them. The room was much bigger here and the toilet and bathtub was also much nicer. And we got a nice view outside the room, all covered with snow...heheee....Then i went to the toilet and accidentally locked the toilet door from outside. Hahaha...the toilet can't be opened now...so we called to get the staff the door. A young lady came up to our room and then she tried to open the door and was also puzzled why the door got locked. Then she suddenly ran off after telling us that she will be back later. Later another guy staff (who helped us to do our check in) came and helped us unlock the door. Then he also told us how to lock and unlock the door, after the drama, we rested for a while before heading back to Kyoto station for dinner. Before going to take the train, we went to the reception to ask for the breakfast meal for tomorrow and we also enquired on the places to eat during the next few days as it was new year period. The staff took us all the places are closed the next few days. So we booked breakfast meals for tomorrow, my friend asked the staff whether there was warm food in the breakfast buffet. The staff doesn't get it, so my friend asked her whether there was noodle, rice or eggs. She managed to tell us that there was eggs included, cos she can't speak English well but we can see her trying very hard to communicate with her. Somehow we did find her very cute....hahaa...Anyway she kept saying sorry to us when we left the hotel for dinner. We took the JR train back to Kyoto station and it was still very cold outside. So we tried to find food in the station, the station was quite big and there were a lot of restaurants. We went up 10th level in Istean, this level was a ramen street. There were a lot of ramen restaurants in the level. So we walked 1 round to see which ramen restaurant to try.

Fried Rice...Must Try!!

Ramen

Fish Cutlet

We went to a ramen restaurant and bought the items using the vouchers machine. Then we queued for table. We ordered a ramen with pork, a fried rice and a fish cutlet. When we sat down, we noticed there was a basket of raw eggs on the table. Then my friend was saying the raw egg to beat in the ramen and i also saw other people beat the raw egg into their ramen. The fried rice was super nice and i also liked the fish cutlet. The ramen soup was abit thick but the bacon was very tender. My friend even smuggled 2 eggs back to the hotel...hohoho...After the nice dinner, we went back to the hotel. We exited on the other side to take a walk around the surroundings. There were some workers pushing the snow away from the walkways in front of the station. Then we started to play with the snow and even made a small snowman. We also saw a small blue car with a block of snow on top of the car...hohohoho....After that, we went back to the hotel and my friend went and asked for coffee. After that, i went and 'onsen' inside the bathroom...lol...the hot water was very shiok, after that i felt super hot and looked red after the bath...hohoho...Had to open the window to let the cold wind in to cool down. The snow was also snowing heavily and the wind was still blowing strong. Worry about tomorrow that we cannot go out due to heavy snow.

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Tetora Otsu

Shibuya 渋谷区, Japan Trip (Day 5)

31st December 2014, Wednesday

Hachiko Statue

Yippie! Today is the last day of year 2014 and we will be going for countdown in Meji Shrine tonight. I also didn't plan much of the activities for today, so we made our way to Shibuya for shopping and buy new ipads. And so we took the metro from Hanzomon station to Shibuya Station. We reached there around 10 plus like that, and we kept crossing the road to find the loyal dog statue - Hachiko. It was hiding at one of the corner near the JR Shibuya Station entrance. And there were many people waiting to take photo with it and there were also a lot of people just crowding around the area. Opposite the it got a stall selling roasted chestnuts and we went over to buy a packet. Not too bad...After we bought the chestnuts, we started on our walking trail but we stopped outside Starbucks to tap on their wifi to find where is the apple store there. Not able to tap on the wifi, so we continued walking. My friend saw there was a long queue outside a cake shop and she just went to queue. I went to the front of the shop and the shop named 'Pablo'. It was selling cheesecakes and with different flavors too. The cakes look nice and yummy, and so we bought 1 cake with coated sugar on top. After buying, we continued to walk on the streets, there were many buildings around, Forever 21, Outback Steaks until we walked until a sushi restaurant named Sushizanmai in an alley.

Sushi Deluxe Set

Miso Soup

Crab Miso Soup

So we went in to have our lunch as it was almost 2 pm by the time we walked to there. We ordered a sushi deluxe set ($3000 yen) and a bowl of crab soup. The sushi set looks delicious and colorful when it was placed before us. The sushi master had prepared them in front of us and there was a big miso soup with a lot of seaweeds. The sushi were so fresh and sweet, i like it...even those i don't take tasted so good. Red tuna, fat tuna, salmon....we ordered 3 more individual pieces after the set too (Even now i still think of the sushi while looking at the photos...hohohoho). We noticed the tuna was slightly expensive than salmon there. After eating, we thanked the sushi master and paid for our meal. Then we continued to explore the area, went into a very big building selling handicrafts stuffs. It was having a few levels, selling a lot of DIY stuffs inside. Even have wifi signals and toilets...hehehee...Went in to check out the handicrafts stuffs but it seems a bit expensive, so we left. Then we ended up at a building called Loft and i saw Kinokuniya bookstore and so we went in. I asked the staff on an origami book that my brother wanted and my friend went off to look for hers. Luckily there was wifi in kino, so i on my wifi to check out what is the apple store. Google map showed it was just nearby and so we went out to try locate it. So funny, i kept looking at the map until i lifted my head up and saw the apple store was just opposite the road. So happy to find the apple store, if not, my friend kept bugging me to find for her the whole day. Anyway, we went in and checked out the prices for ipad air 2 and iphones. Too bad, apple stopped all sales on unlocked sim-free iphones 2 weeks ago, so we cannot buy iphones back. So we each bought an ipad air 2, with no tax included. My friend wanted to buy Applecare too as it was also cheaper to buy in Japan. But the staff kept telling us the applecare is for Japan use, not international, telling us that we can't buy it there. (It sound weird, right?).

Preparing to brave the nights

We also noticed that there were people camping outside of the store, so we asked the staff why are the people camping outside the store. She told us the people were queuing to buy fukubukuro (aka lucky bags) which were selling on the 2nd of January 2015. And today was just the 31st Dec, plus the weather was also cold. And while i was in the store, i told my friend to bring me to the famous Shibuya Crossing. She said we just now had already crossed it, the crossing just outside the JR and metro stations. Oh man, i was like huh? that was the famous Shibuya crossing?? Hahaha...wasn't expecting it cos it felt like i was just crossing a normal big road, that's all. And so after spending almost 2 hours in the store and finally bought the ipads, we went walking on the streets again. Saw Parco building and went in to check out the building, there's a ghostbusters cafe and pokemon cafe on the 7th level. But the pokemon cafe was not opened for business yet. Then we went 1 level down and saw anime shops. There was one big store called Mugiwara Store, it was the biggest store for One Piece stuffs. I spent some time inside the store, trying to get something for my little sister while my friend went off to some other shops. There were really a lot of stuffs inside, if you are a crazy lover of One Piece, i think you will end up buying a lot of goodies there....hehehee....After spending a long time at that level, we finally hit the streets again on our walking trail. We had to pass by NHK hall, where there was a big group of people standing outside the hall holding Japan flags..seems like doing a protest or something. Then we reached Yoyogi park, we were supposed to walk the park before dark. But we ended up in the park after the sun sets...lol...Anyway we still went in and walked in the park to continue our trail. The moon can be seen clearly up in the sky too. Then we saw opposite the road, there were white tents and it was very happening like that. So we crossed over to take a look, it was the Yoyogi National Stadium and it was holding Ayumi Hamasaki Countdown Concert!! 

Queue of No End Point

Everyone was queuing to buy the tee-shirts, jackets, credit cards sign-ups, towels, etc. I also wanted to buy a tee-shirt for my sister, but when i saw the queue to buy, it was OMG.....we can't even see the ending point of the queue. So we just left, cos we also didn't have so much time to stuck ourselves there to queue. But the tee-shirts and jackets designs were quite nice. So we continued to walk down to Meji Shrine, as it was only about 6 plus when we arrived at the shrine. We decided to go ahead to visit the shrine first but we ended up shopping in the gifts shop for like half an hour there...lol....Bought a design changing cup, the design of the cup changes when hot water is being poured in. After that, we walked up to the shrine and there wasn't much people yet. It was a long road to the shrine, there were empty wine barrels on the sides and there were a very big tv monitor on one part too. We could see ourselves on the big screen...hohoho...Then we went to the main shrine after cleansing ourselves with clean water. There was curtains covering the shrine and there was a big area for people to toss coins in. There were also police officers setting up barrages to prepare for the human traffic later in the night. And as we still have about 2 or 3 hours to go before midnight, we went out to eat dinner.

Meji Shrine

Takoyaki (from Osaka)

Colorful Bananas

BBQ Pork & Beef

There was many food stalls selling outside Meji Shrine, sometimes like our pasar malam stalls along the streets. We went up to a BBQ restaurant called Watamim-chi, there were many people eating inside and the waiting place was very cramped, plus the lift was just there. As we got much time to wait, so we told the manager that we were ok to wait for table. But when we got our tables after like half an hour, we were seated in between 2 groups who were smoking and the bbq ordering was to order 1 stick by 1 stick. I was getting irritated by the smoking and my friend thought it will be hard for us to order that. So we left without eating. We just walked along the food stalls and ordered whatever we want to eat...heheee...Actually the food selling by the food stalls looks nice, the fried chicken pieces were also nice to eat. There was a queue for BBQ pork and beef too, it was chewy and sweet. After eating, we stuck ourselves in Mcdonald's there to hide away from the cold wind. Had hot drinks there and then we just sat there and waited until it was time to go back to the shrine again. Had a happy meal again when it was 11 plus, got hungry while waiting...hohoho....We started to walk back to the shrine at around 11.30 pm, this time, there were more people going to the shrine, a lot of youngsters too. Until a point we had to stop and wait to go in to the shrine. Luckily the wind wasn't blowing so strong, so we stood there and waited for midnight. 

Waiting to go in Shrine

Someone got interviewed

Once the clock strikes midnight, the ritual started and it was broadcasted on the big TV screen. Cannot really see it due to too many heads in front. Then there were police officers standing in front of 1 section of the crowd, holding a board telling people when to move ahead and when to stop. It took us about 30 mins to go in the shrine again and this time, the police officers will tell the people to move quickly so that the next batch of people can come in. We saw some people went into the shrine to hit the drum, we wanted to try that but no one was able to tell us whether we are allowed to go in. There was a lady we asked, she was saying we could go in, we just have to write our details on the paper or something. But when we asked the police officers, they told us we cannot and asked us to leave. Oh well, so we left and went to take the metro back to the hotel. When we came down to the metro, we saw Starbucks selling their lucky bags. So we went up and checked it out. We bought 3 of the bags...hehehee..and went off...Luckily the metro was still operating cos it was almost 2 am but the train was abit slow. There was a group of guys and 1 lady, and 1 of the guys was drunk, he can't even stand properly in the train. His hand still hit on my head when he entered the train and after that, he was making quite a nuisance on the train. Finally, we alighted and went back to hotel to sleep...tomorrow have to catch train to Kyoto....

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel - Hanzomon Hirakawacho

Nikko 日光, Japan Trip (Day 4)

30th December 2014, Tuesday

Nio-mon Gate

Today, we were going back to Nikko again but this time we will be visiting the popular shrines and temples there. We left the hotel early today too but this time we bought our breakfast from 松屋 and then made our way to Tokyo Train Station. Then we went the same way as the day before to Nikko, but this time there was super foggy when we passed some towns. It was totally white in color, cannot even see anything outside and we saw a lot of snow. The temperature in Nikko is 0 degrees celsius and it was drizzling too. Today, we noticed there were more people going to Nikko, compared to yesterday. We reached there around 10.30 am and then we took the public heritage bus to the first temple which was the further away, Taiyuinbyo Temple (This time, we didn't alight on the wrong bus stop). There were some remaining snow around the ground and the ground was also very wet. The temple was also under repair works, so one of the main gate was covered with scaffolds. There was a golden door which was shinning very brightly as the sun shone on it, when we first saw it, we were wowing. There was a Haiden-Honden Hall, which the halls were connected in a 'H' shape and it was built with gold too. There was a golden arrow which costs around $8800 yen and it is meant for you to put at home as a charm to ward off evils. The golden arrow was a weapon used by one of the gods standing guard at the gate.

"Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil"

 After exploring this temple, we walked to another temple. At the entrance of the temple, there were boxes where you put a small amount of money (eg: $100 or $300 yen) to buy a fortune paper/charm for yourself. We bought 1 small little stone, in the form of crescent shape which has different meanings for each individual color. Then we went in to another temple ground with the entrance fee $200 yen. Not sure what temple was that, there was some mini games which you can also play with them as you walk by. There were also very big trees which were more than hundred of years old. After spending some time exploring the temple, we walked down to Toshogu Shrine, which was the oldest shrine in Nikko. The entrance fee for this temple costs $1300 yen per adult and there were some famous cravings like the sleeping cat, the see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil monkeys. As we walked in, we saw the monkeys cravings on one of the houses. There were many difference cravings on the monkeys with different explanations like a mother monkey is looking at the future of the child...and the child grew to be independent. There were 2 big storehouses opposite the cravings too. After this, we reached the Yomeimon Gate. The Yomeimon Gate was under repairs, so the whole gate was covered with scaffolds. And as we entered, the golden door of the main shrine greeted us. The door was shining brightly too and it was made of real gold.

Sleeping Cat

600 years old Spiritual Tree

We turned to the left side and went to the Sakashitamon Gate, where the staff checked our tickets for the sleeping cat shrine. There were many people around the temple, today a busy day it seems. We had to queue to go to the sleeping cat shrine. There was a famous craving on the sleeping cat on the gate and once we passed the gate, there was a long flight of stairs to climb up and it was very tiring to climb in cold weather. By the time we reached the top, we were panting. And the shrine wasn't very big, there were a priest that will ask everyone to come closer and he will start doing some ritual to bless all the people who came. Then he will ask everyone to walk in one direction to the back and back to the stairs for exit. We had to walk in single line and slowly, as we walked, we noticed there was another queue to pray to a big hole in a 600 years old super big tree. There was a sign that indicated that if you pray to the tree, your wishes will be fulfilled. We just walked up to the front and prayed at it and left...hohohoho...Then we went to queue to buy the sleeping cat bells for keepsake and went down the stairs to the main shrine. After that, we went to the main shrine which we had to take off our shoes to enter. Photography is not allowed in the main shrine and we just went in to take a look at the shrine. After visiting the main shrine, we went to the crying dragon shrine. Here too, the staff checked our tickets again. But my friend doesn't want to take off her shoes to go in the shrine. So i went ahead, my feet were frozen the whole day as we had to take off shoes a few times. Inside the shrine, i had to queue for my turn to go in the hall (at least no need to climb stairs again). As i moved in to the hall, i saw a very big drawing of a dragon up on the ceiling and there was a priest standing there and got everyone to come in as much as we can before he began. Then he began and introducing the crying dragon hall in Japanese...heheee...of course i don't understand what he is explaining. But at the later part of his speech, he took 2 blocks of wood and clapped them directly under the mouth of the dragon. And there was a bright ringing sound echoing back, but when he moved away from the dragon's mouth and clapped the woods again, there was no echo returned (very interesting..). So that's why the shrine is being called as Honjido Hall. There were also 12 Luo Han statues in the hall, which later i realized each one of the Luo Hans represent to each Zodiac animal. After the introduction by the priest, we were told to leave the hall by the other way, where purchases of the bells and charms are along the way out.

Crying Dragon Bells

Long-shaped Bao

Shinkyo Bridge

I bought 2 of the crying dragon bells, cos the ringing of the bells was different from the normal bells. Very unique...hehehee...I gave 1 of the bells to my friend, cos she didn't went in to see the crying dragon.  After the crying dragon shrine, we went out of the temple where there were some stalls outside the temple. We saw a stall selling baos, there was 1 interesting bao, it was long in shape which costs $50 yen. My friend so funny, she still asked me to wait for an ang mo to buy and then see his face whether he is happy or sad after taking the 1st bite. And guess what, the guy overheard us and turned around and told us the bao was still very hotz and he couldn't take the first bite yet. lol....Anyway we went ahead and bought 1 for ourselves to try...it wasn't that bad, quite nice actually. Then we walked down to Rinnoji Temple, we ended up there but the main entrance was covered by a scaffolding, which had us confused. We thought we haven't reached the temple but actually we had reached. But anyway we saw the staffs starting to sweep the floor of the place and the tickets office were closed. So we didn't went in to visit this temple. Then we just walked the way down and saw the founder of Nikko Temples statue and the Shinkyo Bridge, which was the entrance point for Nikko's shrines and temples. It costs about $200 yen to enter the bridge. We took photos outside (without entering the bridge) before walking down the streets of Nikko to walk back to the JR train station. We passed a snack shop selling bbq rice balls, which we bought 1 stick to eat and post office where i posted postcards back to SG. It costs $70 yen to post to anywhere in the world...hehehe...Then we passed a Hello Kitty shop, where everything is Hellow Kitty item. It even has Hello Kitty Lucky bags, which i asked my friend to buy 1 for her friend who is crazy about Hello Kitty.

Fried Red Bean Buns..Must Try!!!

BBQ Salmon

Then we saw there was a long queue queuing at a stall, which was selling deep fried red bean buns. It was just opposite Tobu-Nikko station. We just went to queue for it too, without knowing what the stall selling at first. We bought 3 of them to eat on the train on our way back. And after getting the red bean buns, we walked to the JR Nikko station. Then it was the same route back to Tokyo station, the fried red bean buns were very yummy, should buy more of it. Went to check out the toilet on the train too, it was very big and spacious. This time we alighted in Ueno station and took the metro to Shinjuku. As this time was abit early when we reached there, most of the shops were still open. We went in to Uniqlo to shop around, it was a whole building with 4 or 5 levels of clothes to shop. We also went to BIC camera building to shop around and went to Japan's biggest pachinko building. First time went inside to have a peek on the mini balls machines. We had our dinner at Ootoya inside one of the buildings there. I ordered pork cutlet set and my friend ordered the salmon. The salmon tasted much nicely than the port cutlet and so i was stealing her share on the fish...hehehee...After the dinner, we walked on the streets to find the Apple Store there. But we found out that the Apple Store is located in Shibuya and not Shinjuku using the displayed ipads in BIC Camera shop. After which we took the metro back to the hotel and rested after a long day.

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel - Hanzomon Hirakawacho

Nikko Edomura 日光江戸村, Japan Trip (Day 3)

29th December 2014, Monday

Today, we are going to a Japanese cultural theme park in Nikko called Nikko Edomura (Edo Wonderland). We are going there to see samurais and ninja during Edo period....hohoho....We got up around 6 plus and left the hotel to take the train to Nikko. We had to take the metro to Tokyo station and take a train down to Nikko and our JR pass are activated today (so our train rides on any JR lines are free).....We went to the JR office in Tokyo station and booked seats reservation for our ride today. We also booked the same time trains for tomorrow (as we are going back to Nikko again), the staff looked at us puzzled when we asked him to book the same route for us tomorrow. We had to do a transfer train at Utsunomiya station and take the Nikko line. Finding the train platform is also very challenging there, because first you need to know what type of trains you are taking and then go into the gate, only then you can see your train platform number (they don't print it on the train tickets). Another way, is just ask the train staff...they will tell you which platform is your train going to arrive. Most of the long distance trains are by shinkansen, so we were following the direction to get to shinkansen ticket gate and on our way to the gate, we bought a box of brum cakes and a cold bento to eat on the train. The bento that were selling at the station to eat on the train are basically all cold....and they are not cheap too....lol...And after buying the food, we went in to the gate and before entering, we checked with the train staff on whether we were on the right place and which platform we need to go up....It was still early when we went in, we bought a chocolate drink from the vending machine and it was hot...somehow the bottle was warm when it was dispensed out...amazing....

Mount and Striaght Baumkuchen Cakes

Cold Bento

Then we went up to our platform and waited for our train to arrive. When the train arrived, the train cleaning team went in and do cleaning and even turned the seats around for the opposite direction. We noticed some teams had completed cleaning but were waiting for the rest of the teams in other cars to complete. And after some time, the whole team stood outside of each car and bowed to the passengers and greeted before letting the passengers to aboard (very got process). And so, we boarded the train, we were so impressed with the train (we got the green class pass). The seats were very spacious and the train clean too and we got very big leg space too. We were wowing when we boarded...like mountain turtles...hahaha...but it was really very enjoyable...After the train left Tokyo, we started to eat the food we bought for breakfast...and enjoyed looking at the views from the window....It was about 45 mins to reach Utsunomiya station and after we alighted the station, we had to walk down the station and enter to another gate for Nikko line. As both are under the same train company, we can use our JR pass to take the Nikko line. Our train was always at the platform waiting, it was set to leave at 10.10 am. There are 6 stations, including Nikko station and the whole journey will take about 45 mins too. We got on the train, which was like a metro train and sat on the seats to wait for the train to leave. There were many people on board too, and the heater was super powerful...basically we were so hotz inside with our jackets on. We had to tahan until we reached Nikko station. All the people alighted at Nikko station, so the station was kind of packed when we alighted and we had to show our JR pass to get out of the ticket gates.

Nikko, World Heritage site

Mountains with Snow

We were trying to find the bus stop where the free shuttle to Edo Wonderland was. Almost waited at the wrong bus stop, there was a sign with Edo Wonderland picture at the bus stop and there was 3 bus timings for it. We had missed the first bus time and so we had to wait until 11.20 am for the next bus. There were snow mountains surrounding Nikko and the clouds were floating around the mountains, it was very cold today too. There were pigeons sleeping on the tree branches too...There was even a stone outside the station with Nikko crystal water flowing for passers-by to drink...very refreshing and clean...heheee....There were many people taking the public places to go the shrines, there were only 3 groups (including us) going to Edo Wonderland. So we were just jumping around while waiting for the shuttle bus to come. Finally the bus came and we boarded. It was about half an hour ride to the theme park, and we went to get our tickets when we arrived. There was a long road to walk before we were greeted by some villagers from Edo period at the village entrance. And there were old old houses used during the Edo period, the first house we saw was a taxi-service house. There were also samurais standing around in the village, there was a shrine called O-Edo Tenmangu Shrine. There were also shows performing at certain times and games to play. The village was big too and everything displayed were during Edo period.

Comedy Stage Play

Ninja Show

Hell Temple

There was a play going on when we reached the main square, and of course the dialog was in Japanese. But because there was a lot of expressions and actions from the actors and actresses, we can roughly guess what was happening. It was kind of a comedy with some fighting actions and they ended by singing a song with all the good guys and bad guys. After the play, we went to the theater nearby and went for a ninja action play, which last about 15 mins. This play was more on ninja and samurai fighting, without almost no dialog but they had good effects and lighting (Photographs and videos are not allowed). And while you are queuing, the ninja will pass you a transparent paper but they didn't tell you what is it for. Until when the narrator inside the theater explained, actually the paper is for you to wrap your rubbish and then to throw onto the stage before you leave...hahahaa....After the show, we came out and took a photo with 2 ninjas....After that, we went to a Hell Temple beside it....kekeke...My friend kept on scaring me by making scary sounds...Inside the temple, there was hell king and some other scary stuffs, pretty much like the Chinese Hell too. Behind was a father and son, i think the son also got scared by my friend...hahaha....After we came out from the Hell Temple, we went into an archery game house...W bought a voucher to play archery. It costs $600 yen for 5 arrows..and the bow was made of wood and it was those ancient type. We each took turns to try to shoot..hahaa..all missed, can't get 1 arrow to hit and we got a postcard as a consolation prize.

Sweet Corn

BBQ Skewers

Pinwheel Darts Game

After playing, we went out to the streets and saw a house with heavy smoke coming out. So i went over to have a peek, it was selling bbq skewers and there was a long queue of people buying. I went to queue to buy too..hehhee...while my friend went further down the streets to look for her corn (she saw got people eating corns).  The BBQ skewers each costs $500 yen, we got 1 chicken and 1 pork. It was yummy, and the corn was sweet too. While we were queuing, we saw a group of kids chasing a 'thief' around the village and there was a samurai telling the kids how to catch the thief. The kids were all having so much fun chasing and eventually, they caught the thief successfully. After buying the skewers, we stood outside a house (where you can cook your own rice crackers) and ate our bbq skewers. After that, we went to other houses to see what do they have. We went into a game house where we played pinwheel darts and gun shooting games. Each costs $600 yen. There was a Japanese couple playing before us and the guy was trying very hard to get a hit on the dart board. He had bought 2 times to play and finally he did hit once in the board after some time. The staff even tried showed them how to shoot, and we were super impressed with her when she threw the dart lightly and it really hit on the board!! It seems like to her, it was so easy. Then we gave it a try, it wasn't that easy. Cos the darts were very light (wasn't much weight) and there were no feathers to support it. Of course, we didn't hit it on the board....hahaaa...but at least it did touched the board and fell...Then later the couple went over to play the gun shooting and the lady was expert on this. She hit a few times while her boyfriend didn't hit once, so the guy went to buy the vouchers to try to hit it (seems like they were having challenge). Hohoho....they were having so much fun and we also had fun looking at them. We too tried out luck in the shooting game, we didn't even hit once...so lousy....hahahaha

Cooked Rice Cracker

Nice View with Clear Water

After the fun, we went to the house to cook rice crackers. It was interesting, we used charcoal to cook it. It costs $150 yen for one rice crackers. We put the sweet sauce onto the cracker once it had turned golden brown. The staff gave us an english instructions on how to cook the rice crackers but the 2 staffs were also helping everyone to check whether the crackers were ok to put the sauce over.  It took us about 5 to 10 mins to have the rice crackers to be done. After cooking the crackers, we went walk exploring the rest of the village. We went into a house where there were statues exhibit on the Edo Period history. After that, we went outside taking stroll and saw fishes swimming along the side drains....Then we went inside an empty to take a peek too, we had to take our shoes and it was very cold. After that, we walked back to the main street and there was a parade which was about to end. So we only got to see the ending and after the parade, we noticed people were starting to leave the village. Then we went back to the bbq house to buy the skewers again and we got the rice balls too. After eating, we also started to make our way back to the entrance. When we reached near the guard house, i saw a samurai sitting there from far. My friend was walking ahead of me and she walked quite near to the guard house. And ahhhh....the samurai jumped at her and gave her a fright...hahahaa...so funny...We both had a great laugh on it....Later we went back to take a photo with the samurai. The samurai even gave his best pose for us...kekeke

Foot Onsen

Late Dinner

 Then we went off and bought a super big pork bao on the way out too. We went to the bus stop and waited for the public bus, since the last free shuttle bus to JR Nikko station had already left. We had to take the public bus and go up to Kinugawa-onsen Station. And from there, we had to take train (with a transfer at Shimo-Maichi station) to Tobu-Nikko station, where we can walk back to JR station. As we had missed the train and had to wait for the next available train, we went walk around nearby Kinugawa-onsen station. There was even a foot onsen outside the station for people to relax their feet. We walked to the shops to pass time, and after that, we went to take the train back to JR Nikko station, where we had to take the Nikko line back to Utsunomiya station and take the JR line back to Tokyo station. By the time we reached Tokyo, it was about 9 pm. But we still took the JR Yamanote line to Shinjuku station. It was a very long route, cos this line was stopping many stations. We were quite tired when we reached Shinjuku, so we decided to just eat dinner and then go back to the hotel. Went in a bento restaurant to eat dinner but my friend wasn't having much appetite, so i ate my bento and then we took the train back to our hotel to rest. Notice there was a carriage for women only during peak hours time..hohohoho....

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel - Hanzomon Hirakawacho