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Thinking that we had 2 days left to fit in everything we wanted to do in Tokyo, one day at Disneyland and a visit to the fish market followed by an early night in preparation for our early flight on Wednesday, we noticed that the fish market was closed on the Monday so headed off to Disneyland instead - only to get to the gates and realise that it was sold out due to a National Holiday - Doh!

As we couldn’t get back into the magical kingdom we headed back into central Tokyo and wandered around Akihabara - Electric Town.  It was sensory overload with shop after shop of electrical goods blaring out catchy tunes and tempting us to spend our remaining yens - unfortunately there was no room in the backpacks!

So on Tuesday morning we got up super early and went of to the largest fish market in the world.  There should be a warning sign for sleepy-heads here - there were a few near misses with the carts that speed around the market delivering fresh fish from stall to stall.  It was so interesting to see where all of that fish in Japan actually comes from!  We were surrounded by so many different types of fish but especially eye-catching were the enormous frozen tunas - they were as big as me!

I felt a bit queasy to say the least after walking through a market of fish for about 45 minutes I didn’t think I was going to manage to eat any sushi but after a few walks around the block we stopped into a sushi place where I had the most amazing sushi ever!  It was great to know that this was as fresh as it could ever get - I think that our breakfast could have been auctioned off only an hour or so earlier!

After washing down my sushi with some green tea we headed off on the tokyo metro to Disneyland!  I was pretty excited after the disappointment of not being able to get in the day before.

We managed to get on most rides that we wanted to despite the park being really busy with Japanese people taking an extended holiday.  It rained non-stop from around noon but we didn’t let that dampen our spirits and still managed to sing and dance along with the parade which was Halloween themed.

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Unfortunately the night parade was cancelled due to all of the rain so it was off home exhausted and sleepy to catch a few hours sleep before our flight to Hong Kong the next day…

We’ve managed to cover a fair bit of Japan since my last post…

We left Kawaguchi-ko on Monday (6th) for Kyoto and being prepared as we are had not really worked out how to get there.  Luckily, the hostel owner was very helpful and he pointed us in the direction of the bus stop to catch a bus to Mishima in order to catch the Shinkansen Bullet train from there to Kyoto.  I’ve been on a few bumpy bus journeys in my lifetime but this was something else - the bus took as around the bottom of Mount Fuji and at one point we were speeding along this narrow mountain road in low cloud cover with the rain lashing down - my knuckles were white by then end of that one!  We made it to Mishima in one piece after changing buses in Gotemba and caught the Bullet train down to Kyoto.  These Japanese trains are something else…  There is so much leg room that you could get your luggage at your feet and still have room to stretch out.  My favourite thing about the train is this nifty feature that the seats have whereby when reaching the end of the line the train staff can pass through the carriage push a lever on the seats and turn them around to face the other direction so everyone faces direction of travel - so cool!

We spent four nights in Kyoto exploring the city and around.

After leaving the hostel on our first morning within an hour we had spotted some Geishas.

I was so excited!!  I read “Memoirs of a Geisha” a while back and fell in love with Kyoto and the whole Geisha idea.  It was so cool to see some in the flesh with their white makeup and high shoes.

We took a daytrip to Nara to see the largest wooden building in the world at Todai-ji temple.

The building is the Daibatsu-den Hall, inside of which is a gigantic Bronze Buddha statue.

The length of it’s fingers are the size of a human!!  Around the back of the statue is a pillar with a hole cut in the bottom which is the same size as one of buddha’s nostrils.  Legend has it that if you can fit through the hole then you will be enlightened.  We contemplated for a while whether to attempt squeezing through but decided that we would be able to do it but didn’t want to risk the embarrassment of being pulled out by fellow tourists!  We watched for a while as a shy, young japanese boy was coaxed by his mum to slip through the hole and just as he was about to do it a group of schoolchildren came around the corner causing him to cower behind his mum’s legs covering his ears!  I’m starting to wonder if Japanese schools every hold class or if they are constantly on daytrips.  Everywhere we go there seem to be herds of them in their yellow hats making such a noise that sometimes I want to run away and hide too!

We visited Osaka yesterday which is only a short train journey from Kyoto - our Japan rail pass has really come in handy!  We spent most of the day in the Umeda Sky Building enjoying the view across the city, watching the sunset and then looking out over all the neon lights.  We headed downtown to the Dotobori Arcade as we had been advised that is where to find some good nightlife.  I think we went on the wrong day!  We went into a few bars and all were empty aside from the bartender and a few drunk regulars.  I have come to the conclusion that Japanese people prefer to stroll and then go to restaurants and stay long there drinking rather than hit the bars - or maybe we just went on the wrong day!

We took the Shinkansen down to Hiroshima today and visited Miyajima to see the floating Torii and then went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to see the A-Bomb Dome and visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

The amount of information was quite overwhelming and certainly gave me something to think about.  It was very eye-opening seeing just what an effect the atomic bomb had on the city and the people living here.  I think the exhibit that hit me most was a step from outside a bank where a woman had been sitting waiting for the bank to open when the bomb hit.  The whole step has been bleached white from the blast except the spot where she was sitting where her shadow remains dark.

We are heading back up to Tokyo tomorrow with a lot more to fit in before we leave for Hong Kong on Wednesday.  More news on what we get up to there in a few days.

More photos from the last few days on my flickr page.

We have moved down to Kyoto but I still couldn’t get my photos off my camera as it kept trying to install something on the hostel PC - my and my fancy camera eh!  On a walk around Kyoto we picked up a card reader and now I have my photos - wahey!

So here is a pick of a few of them…

Jenni & Gav - that last one’s for you!  There is a chain of pharmacies called Lawson Station!

For the rest of them you can check them out on my flickr page.

Time for another update I think….

We are now down in Kawaguchi-ko which is in the foothills of Mt. Fuji.  Unfortunately, when we arrrived the weather was dull and overcast so the mountain was hidden from sight!  We are going to rise early tomorrow and go on a mountain hunt! 

We are staying in a traditional Japanese guesthouse (Ryokan) which is really cool.  They have the “shoes off at the door” policy, as we have found in most places in Japan, and you are provided with a pair of slippers to wear around the ryokan.  The rooms here are really nice and spacious, we are in a dorm but you have a low bunk to yourself with room underneath for all of your stuff - which is handy as our bags arrived from BA today!

We went for dinner tonight at a Japanese BBQ place recommended in the guidebook and also by the hostel.  I think it is one of my best experiences in Japan yet!  You sit around hot coals on little cushions and get to cook all of your food yourself.  We ordered a selection of meat, fish and veg to have and as the waiter was explaining to us how to cook the food I noticed Iain’s rainbow trout raise his head - the fish were still alive!!!!  So crazy!  At this point the waiter advised us to wait until “the fish stop moving” before cooking them.  Those fish had some fight left in them, mine - George - made a few attempts to leap of the plate much to my shock at a few intervals before he finally gave up the ghost!  What a tasty meal - we had so much different kinds of food - I am still full.

We have now also had the pleasure of trying out a Japanese Onsen/Spring bath.  These are large shared hot spring baths where you can wash and then soak in the lovely hot water.  You are able to see Mount Fuji from the baths - unfortunately no chance of that today but maybe I can enjoy the view from the bath tomorrow morning.

No photos as yet I’m afraid.  Although our bags have arrived and I have my camera cable I can’t get them loaded as this PC keeps looking for an admin password.  We are moving to Kyoto tomorrow so hopefully I can get some uploaded there.  Iain has managed to get his working so checkout his flickr page for some pics appearing soon!

Today we visited the oldest temple in Japan - the Senso-ji - just a short walk from our hostel in Asakusa.

It was really hot so after our wander around Asakusa we went back to the hostel for a rest and to do some planning/hostel booking.

This evening we went up the Tokyo Tower.  The tower is 333m tall and based on the Eiffel tower.  We had some amazing views over Tokyo from the observation deck.  It’s quite strange, from above Tokyo looks very like the postcard image I imagined but when you are wandering around the streets it doesn’t feel like the huge metropolis that it is and more like a small town with lots of cute little houses.