One Week in Tokyo - Trip Report
Oct 15th, 2006, 01:45 AM
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One Week in Tokyo - Trip Report
I just returned from my first trip to Tokyo. Thanks to everyone for their help with planning this trip. Here's my trip report as promised.
<b>Day 1</b>
We took a Thai Airways flight from Kuala Lumpur, connecting at the new Bangkok airport, to Tokyo. Apart from the lack of personal seat entertainment in economy class, Thai Airways was comparable to MAS or SIA, my usual airlines. The food in my opinion was great and we were on a new 772 with their bright and colourful seats. The transfer at the new BKK airport was smooth and our luggage made it with no problems even though our connecting flight to Tokyo was in less than 90 minutes. The new BKK airport was huge and slightly confusing, in that it was not brightly lit in many places (the boarding gate area was not bright enough to read even) and also looked partially unfinished with renovations going on in many places still.
So we arrived at Narita Airport (Terminal 1) at 7.30am the next morning, right on schedule. No lines at immigration and our bags were already at the belt when we reached it. We went straight to the Limousine Bus counter, got tickets bound for Shinjuku, waited 10 mins for the bus and was away less than 30 mins after we touched down. The bus took less than 2 hours to arrive in Shinjuku. Right on time.
Our hotel in Tokyo was a small business hotel in Shinjuku - Kadoya Hotel. From the Airport Limousine stop right outside Shinjuku train station, it was merely a 3-minute walk to the hotel, just across the street from the Shinjuku Post Office. Very convenient. Our triple room was 18,900 yen per night and we had 3 twin beds right next to one another, with about a foot of space between each bed. The room's small but adequate...there was just about enough floor space for each of our roller bags to open up. Amenities-wise, we had a bar fridge (empty), TV, desk (free LAN connection for those with laptops), 2 chairs, 2 tables, a wardrobe, hair dryer, bathrobes, pyjamas, toiletries etc. Water pressure was very good too. So all in all, there was no lack of amenities even though it was a modest hotel. The hotel also has a cafe and a restaurant (which we never patronised) and a computer terminal in the lobby with free access as well as free printing (printer was by the computer). They willingly kept our luggage when we took an overnight trip to Hakone. Right next door was also a convenience store, which was handy for snacks and drinks. Kadoya Hotel - recommended for those on a budget. PS: Hotel check-in time was 2 pm and earlier check-in was possible with 1000 yen for every hour earlier. So...we didn't. We still managed to enter our rooms by 1.30pm though.
So, after waiting 1.5 hours at the lobby for another friend to arrive and join us on this trip (there're 3 of us now when there were 2), we then went out to recce the area and searched for lunch. Ended up at a small noodle shop where you buy tickets from a vending machine, pass the ticket to the kitchen/counter, pour your own water or tea (at some other places, they bring you your tea) and then collect your meal when it's ready (other places brought us our food). I chose a soba (soup) + karaage (fried chicken pieces) on rice set for about 600 yen. My cousin had a udon (soup) + katsudon set for maybe slightly less. There were also pickles to be had from the table or counter. Everyone around us was either eating just the noodles or just the rice. Obviously, the plastic food presentations outside the restaurant showcased the more expensive sets but we were glad to have the variety anyway. Still, we couldn't finish the rice. The food was great but these kinds of shop are not places to linger so we ate and ran to say.
We then proceeded to the Shinjuku Station and bought our Hakone train tickets from the Odakyu counter. Our trip to Hakone was planned to be on Monday and that was a public holiday, so instead of getting the Hakone Weekdaypass (4700 yen), we had to buy the Hakone Freepass (5500 yen). This Weekday/Freepass covers all your transport in Hakone and includes your to-and-fro train from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto itself, so it was a good deal. We spent an extra 870yen to “upgrade” one-way on the Odakyu Romance Car, which was a Limited Express train similar to the Shinkansen (with reserved seats, toilets, dining car etc). Time-wise, the Romance Car is faster by between 20 to 30 mins when compared to the normal train. As we have yet to decide what time to return to Tokyo on Tuesday, we thought we may as well take the regular train when we return and save the extra 870 yen, especially when it didn’t seem to take all that much longer. A small miscalculation but more on that later.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around some of the malls in the vicinity (Takashimaya, Keio Plaza, Lumine 1 and 2 were all there). Japanese departmental stores were generous in giving out free cosmetic samples so we collected free samples of lipgloss, facial cleanser, shampoo etc. and felt like we accomplished plenty for our first day already! We also went to Tokyu Hands and explored for an hour or so. I can't remember what we had for dinner.
<b>Day 2</b>
Today was Sunday and our plan was to go to Harajuku. As an aside, the weather was bright and sunny for our entire 7 days in Tokyo. From the Shinjuku station, it was only 2 stops on the JR Yamanote Line to the Harajuku station. Our first stop was the Meiji Shrine and because it was a Sunday, we saw two wedding processions and plenty of adults and little kids dressed up in their kimonos on the grounds. Great photo ops all around and it was pleasant to spend some time on the shrine grounds even though I felt like the paparazzi, trying to take their pictures. This feeling continued when we exited the shrine grounds and saw the Cosplay girls dressed up in their costumes. Fortunately, there were plenty of tourists approaching some of these girls to take photographs and I managed to place myself in the "queue" and got my photo taken with a pink Bo Peep. And that was that...I couldn't bring myself to continue "stalking" these people like they were exhibits for my camera (even though my friend was very keen to find some Gothic girls), so we proceeded to wander the streets, walking from Harajuku to Shibuya. Oh, almost forgot to mention that the Meiji Shrine gift shop was pretty good – the souvenirs they sold there were very reasonable compared to other places we went to subsequently.
The whole area was teeming with people as it was a Sunday so it wasn't too conducive for any serious shopping (or even lunch, as the queues were very long everywhere, even for like, say, Shakey's Pizza). We did stop here and there (shops, Kiddyland, Oriental Bazzar) and had a late lunch at an Italian restaurant (which bluffed us into thinking there was no queue as it was underground). Still the food was very good and reasonable (around 1000 yen per pax) and we had shimeji mushroom risotto, scampi pasta and another shrimp pasta, clam chowder, garlic bread. It was an extremely satisfying meal after walking around all afternoon. During lunch, I accidentally spilled a glass of ice water on the table and the waiter used up one entire BOX of tissue to wipe up the (plain) water. From what I observed during the trip, Japanese people are very environmentally conscious (garbage are segregated everywhere even for public thrash bins) but their liberal use of tissue, fancy packaging and plastic bags (for every purchase of more than 1 item, they automatically throw in more empty bags into your shopping bag) did give me a pause nonetheless. Anyway, after that, there was more walking and by the time we arrived in Shibuya, we were very tired. There was more wandering around – we went to check out the Loft, some shops, this and that, and then it was time to go back to the hotel. 3 stops on the JR train and we were back in Shinjuku. We had curry + rice set for dinner this evening. Approximately 400yen.
<b>Day 3</b>
Our train to Hakone was at 7.30am. It was scheduled to arrive just before 9am in Hakone. The Odakyu Romance Car (Limited Express) as mentioned earlier is similar to the Shinkansen and very comfortable. Unlike the normal trains (which do not have individual seats but instead have bench seats across the length of the carriage, if you know what I mean), this train has numbered seats, baggage space and a meal cart service as well. The trip was fast, comfortable and pleasant.
I made reservations at the Hotel Senkei after some research on Hakone ryokans. Hotel Senkei was right in Hakone-Yumoto town (10 mins walk from the Station), so it was very convenient although others may prefer staying by the Lake or up the mountain. Hotel Senkei was pretty unique in the sense that it seemed to wish to be every kind of accommodation – traditional high-end ryokan, normal ryokan and normal western-style hotel (Senkei Plaza). All three “annexes” are on the premise and all guests are allowed to use the hotel’s onsen (1 outdoor – alternate between makes and females depending on the hours; and 1 indoor each for males and females). We chose the normal ryokan option – the weekday plan for a tatami room for 3 was 13,900 per pax. This rate included room, onsen use, in-room Japanese dinner and in-room Japanese breakfast. I found it extremely reasonable for all that we experienced. The hotel layout was also very unique and pretty…the outdoor bath was on the roof and was very nicely landscaped. Our room had a small balcony as well.
So after dropping our overnight bags at the hotel, we proceeded to do the “Hakone circuit”. As this route is the popular Hakone “to-do”, it was pretty easy getting going as all local and foreign tourists seemed to be doing the same thing. We did the circuit anti-clockwise, i.e. we first took the Hozan train up the mountain, then the Cable car and then the Ropeway to the volcanic area, then cruise the lake and back to town by bus. We didn’t stop at the outdoor museum as we wanted to finish the circuit early and enjoy the onsen and the ryokan. On the Ropeway, we had brilliant views of Mt Fuji (like I mentioned, clear, sunny, perfect weather all through our trip) so that alone already made the trip worthwhile. At the volcanic area (sorry, forgot the name as I don’t have my brochures with me right now), we took the Exploration Path and trekked up the mountain/volcano.
The sulphurous smell was overt but not overwhelming. The path was very pretty, so we took plenty of photos. Mt Fuji appeared in many of course. Up the mountain/volcano, we joined the crowds and bought those black volcanic hard-boiled eggs. I had read that either the yolk or white was runny and didn’t taste good. But what we got were like normal hard-boiled eggs…solid whites, solid yolk. We had wanted to try one for the fun of it (supposedly, eating one extends your lifespan by 7 years!) but they now sold 6 for 500yen in standard packages, so we each had 2 eggs. A packet of salt was included and surprisingly, the eggs turned out very nice (or more accurately, they tasted just as normal hard-boiled eggs). We ate them right then and there and in the end, two eggs each was enough as our lunch that day.
After lingering over black volcanic eggs, we retraced our steps back to the Ropeway station only to find that the next part of the circuit (Ropeway towards Togendai where we were supposed to take the sightseeing ship across Lake Ashi) was closed. The Ropeway company had shuttle buses to take us to the next destination and this was where we had to wait the longest. The Ropeway usually runs continuously, and it wouldn’t have taken us more than 10-15 minutes to reach the next part of our circuit. Instead, there was one single shuttle bus deployed to ferry everyone and the traffic was awful (maybe because it was a public holiday?) up the mountain. So, we had to queue for more than 1 hour just waiting for the bus to return from the bottom of the mountain and the 3 of us were lucky to be the last people to squeeze up the bus (with a whole long queue behind us waiting for the next bus which was probably going to take another hour) – I actually had to sit on the steps next to the bus driver and made it down to the lake in 20 minutes. Looking at the cars lining up bumper-to-bumper going UP the mountain, I was very tempted to wave to them and tell them to take a u-turn and go home instead!
While queuing for the bus, we took turns to shop at the souvenir shop. I bought 3 Yosegi wooden trick boxes which were very fun. Yosegi is the mosaic wood craft famous in the Hakone area and you can see the intricate wood mosaic patterns on many different products including trays, bins, chopstick rests etc. The best I feel are the trick/puzzle boxes – it takes multiple steps to move the panels of the box before one could open up the box. The more “steps” it took, the more expensive the boxes were. I liked my boxes very much…it’s like I could store anything in them and no one but me (and others who know these boxes
could open them! Anyway, my point was that the souvenir shop here sells the cheapest Yosegi woodcraft products as far as I could see, so this is the place to buy if you were interested.
Ok, by the time we reached the lake, the circuit had already taken much longer than we expected due to the delay. We were getting tired (plus no lunch except for those eggs) but the thought of our comfortable ryokan and onsen (females get to use the outdoor bath this afternoon and night!) pushed us on. We then took one of those colourful pirate ships (a pleasant cruise on the lake with good views all around) to reach Hakonemachi (about 20 mins). From Hakonemachi, we trekked a very pleasant trail to Motohakone. Along this trail, we passed the Hakone Checkpoint Museum, the Detached Palace Garden, Cedar avenue…the walking was all very pleasant due to the cool but sunny weather. After about 30 mins of walking, we reached Motohakone and took a bus back to Hakone-Yumoto (40 mins) before making our way back to the ryokan.
Once checked into our room, we were served sweets and tea. It was 5pm then and we scheduled our dinner to be at 7pm. After hanging around our room for awhile, we decided to change into our yukatas and check out the onsen. Luckily for us, no one else was there so we went ahead for a soak (after devising complicated manoeuvres on how we were going to undress and bathe without looking at each other!) The outdoor onsen was very pretty indeed and we had a very nice time in the bath, chatting about our day at Hakone, listening to insects chirping etc.
Back in our room, immediately after our shower, our dinner arrived. There were lots and lots of food. Sukiyaki, mushroom rice, sashimi, many little plates of this and that, tempura, udon, miso soup etc. The rice actually cooked right at our table as we ate other stuff. Because it was autumn, chestnut, sweet potato, persimmons were the seasonal foods. There were more than enough food and, luckily for us, we liked them all; so apart from being very, very full at the end of the meal, we managed to finish everything. Having our own personal server, I think it would have been a bit embarrassing for us to have plenty of leftover food had we not liked the food.
Our beds were laid out on the floor for us after our dinner was cleared and the 3 of us spent the rest of the night lounging, drinking lots of green tea, reading and basically just relaxing. I find Hakone to be a very pleasant place…small traditional town, mountains, rivers, lakes, hotsprings, boating & fishing on the lake, exploring mountain towns, checking out volcanoes, viewing Mt Fuji – there really was plenty to do there…just my kind of weekend trip destination. It was no wonder that the traffic was so bad as I gathered many Tokyoites think so too!
The next morning, before we had fully digested the previous night’s dinner, a full Japanese breakfast was served in the room. There was less food than dinner but still plenty – yoghurt (ya, yoghurt), fried fish, rice, miso soup, egg custard, more little plates of this and that etc etc. This time round, I couldn’t quite eat them all, mainly because I’m a one-cup-coffee-at-the-office-desk-for-breakfast kind of girl. But I managed 70% (including eating the fried fish for breakfast!!) while my cousin and friend managed most of it. Our server was very surprised when she saw the whole bucket (yes, bucket) full of rice untouched by the 3 of us but we were too full to feel apologetic.
I had to rest from overeating at breakfast before we managed to get going. No soaking in the onsen this morning. We checked-out, walked into town to buy some food souvenirs (chestnut confectionary were in season) and then decided we may as well return to Tokyo. Hotel Senkei – highly recommended. This whole trip to Hakone was a top highlight of my trip.
Anyway, at the station, once again, we stuck to our earlier decision not to “upgrade” to the Romance Car and instead took the next available normal (express) train back to Shinjuku. The price was already included in our Hakone Freepass ticket anyway, so why pay extra when we had all the time in the world. The normal train was like…well, a normal train…we had seats (our backs to the window) facing the opposite bench with other people staring at us. The train stopped along the way and filled up steadily. By 1 hr and 20 mins, it started getting distinctly uncomfortable as more and more people stood in front and surrounded us. With no room to shift around, I sat stiffly, counting the stops to our destination. By 1 hr 30 mins, I wished for the toilet. The last half hour was agony…how I wished we had just sprung the 870yen each for some “romance” after all. And to think we were already on the express train and not the local one.
But I survived and after dropping our stuff back at the hotel (advantageous to stay right by the station), we spent the rest of the day at the Ueno Ameyoko market and Akihabara. Later that night, back at Shinjuku, we bumped into a very cosy and nice ramen place and had ramen, chicken and pork cutlets and juicy gyoza. This place specialised in ramen and cutlets so the quality was very good and the portions huge. But because the food was so good, we had to finish everything (and also because everyone around us finished every last drop), so once again, we stuffed ourselves and had to crawl back to the hotel. Huge bowl of ramen + pork cutlet set ~1000yen. Gyoza (5 pieces) ~500yen. We went back the next day and shared the ramen instead of having an order each.
I'll continue this report later. It's not extremely interesting but I hope someone may find it useful somehow.
Thanks for reading!
<b>Day 1</b>
We took a Thai Airways flight from Kuala Lumpur, connecting at the new Bangkok airport, to Tokyo. Apart from the lack of personal seat entertainment in economy class, Thai Airways was comparable to MAS or SIA, my usual airlines. The food in my opinion was great and we were on a new 772 with their bright and colourful seats. The transfer at the new BKK airport was smooth and our luggage made it with no problems even though our connecting flight to Tokyo was in less than 90 minutes. The new BKK airport was huge and slightly confusing, in that it was not brightly lit in many places (the boarding gate area was not bright enough to read even) and also looked partially unfinished with renovations going on in many places still.
So we arrived at Narita Airport (Terminal 1) at 7.30am the next morning, right on schedule. No lines at immigration and our bags were already at the belt when we reached it. We went straight to the Limousine Bus counter, got tickets bound for Shinjuku, waited 10 mins for the bus and was away less than 30 mins after we touched down. The bus took less than 2 hours to arrive in Shinjuku. Right on time.
Our hotel in Tokyo was a small business hotel in Shinjuku - Kadoya Hotel. From the Airport Limousine stop right outside Shinjuku train station, it was merely a 3-minute walk to the hotel, just across the street from the Shinjuku Post Office. Very convenient. Our triple room was 18,900 yen per night and we had 3 twin beds right next to one another, with about a foot of space between each bed. The room's small but adequate...there was just about enough floor space for each of our roller bags to open up. Amenities-wise, we had a bar fridge (empty), TV, desk (free LAN connection for those with laptops), 2 chairs, 2 tables, a wardrobe, hair dryer, bathrobes, pyjamas, toiletries etc. Water pressure was very good too. So all in all, there was no lack of amenities even though it was a modest hotel. The hotel also has a cafe and a restaurant (which we never patronised) and a computer terminal in the lobby with free access as well as free printing (printer was by the computer). They willingly kept our luggage when we took an overnight trip to Hakone. Right next door was also a convenience store, which was handy for snacks and drinks. Kadoya Hotel - recommended for those on a budget. PS: Hotel check-in time was 2 pm and earlier check-in was possible with 1000 yen for every hour earlier. So...we didn't. We still managed to enter our rooms by 1.30pm though.
So, after waiting 1.5 hours at the lobby for another friend to arrive and join us on this trip (there're 3 of us now when there were 2), we then went out to recce the area and searched for lunch. Ended up at a small noodle shop where you buy tickets from a vending machine, pass the ticket to the kitchen/counter, pour your own water or tea (at some other places, they bring you your tea) and then collect your meal when it's ready (other places brought us our food). I chose a soba (soup) + karaage (fried chicken pieces) on rice set for about 600 yen. My cousin had a udon (soup) + katsudon set for maybe slightly less. There were also pickles to be had from the table or counter. Everyone around us was either eating just the noodles or just the rice. Obviously, the plastic food presentations outside the restaurant showcased the more expensive sets but we were glad to have the variety anyway. Still, we couldn't finish the rice. The food was great but these kinds of shop are not places to linger so we ate and ran to say.
We then proceeded to the Shinjuku Station and bought our Hakone train tickets from the Odakyu counter. Our trip to Hakone was planned to be on Monday and that was a public holiday, so instead of getting the Hakone Weekdaypass (4700 yen), we had to buy the Hakone Freepass (5500 yen). This Weekday/Freepass covers all your transport in Hakone and includes your to-and-fro train from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto itself, so it was a good deal. We spent an extra 870yen to “upgrade” one-way on the Odakyu Romance Car, which was a Limited Express train similar to the Shinkansen (with reserved seats, toilets, dining car etc). Time-wise, the Romance Car is faster by between 20 to 30 mins when compared to the normal train. As we have yet to decide what time to return to Tokyo on Tuesday, we thought we may as well take the regular train when we return and save the extra 870 yen, especially when it didn’t seem to take all that much longer. A small miscalculation but more on that later.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around some of the malls in the vicinity (Takashimaya, Keio Plaza, Lumine 1 and 2 were all there). Japanese departmental stores were generous in giving out free cosmetic samples so we collected free samples of lipgloss, facial cleanser, shampoo etc. and felt like we accomplished plenty for our first day already! We also went to Tokyu Hands and explored for an hour or so. I can't remember what we had for dinner.
<b>Day 2</b>
Today was Sunday and our plan was to go to Harajuku. As an aside, the weather was bright and sunny for our entire 7 days in Tokyo. From the Shinjuku station, it was only 2 stops on the JR Yamanote Line to the Harajuku station. Our first stop was the Meiji Shrine and because it was a Sunday, we saw two wedding processions and plenty of adults and little kids dressed up in their kimonos on the grounds. Great photo ops all around and it was pleasant to spend some time on the shrine grounds even though I felt like the paparazzi, trying to take their pictures. This feeling continued when we exited the shrine grounds and saw the Cosplay girls dressed up in their costumes. Fortunately, there were plenty of tourists approaching some of these girls to take photographs and I managed to place myself in the "queue" and got my photo taken with a pink Bo Peep. And that was that...I couldn't bring myself to continue "stalking" these people like they were exhibits for my camera (even though my friend was very keen to find some Gothic girls), so we proceeded to wander the streets, walking from Harajuku to Shibuya. Oh, almost forgot to mention that the Meiji Shrine gift shop was pretty good – the souvenirs they sold there were very reasonable compared to other places we went to subsequently.
The whole area was teeming with people as it was a Sunday so it wasn't too conducive for any serious shopping (or even lunch, as the queues were very long everywhere, even for like, say, Shakey's Pizza). We did stop here and there (shops, Kiddyland, Oriental Bazzar) and had a late lunch at an Italian restaurant (which bluffed us into thinking there was no queue as it was underground). Still the food was very good and reasonable (around 1000 yen per pax) and we had shimeji mushroom risotto, scampi pasta and another shrimp pasta, clam chowder, garlic bread. It was an extremely satisfying meal after walking around all afternoon. During lunch, I accidentally spilled a glass of ice water on the table and the waiter used up one entire BOX of tissue to wipe up the (plain) water. From what I observed during the trip, Japanese people are very environmentally conscious (garbage are segregated everywhere even for public thrash bins) but their liberal use of tissue, fancy packaging and plastic bags (for every purchase of more than 1 item, they automatically throw in more empty bags into your shopping bag) did give me a pause nonetheless. Anyway, after that, there was more walking and by the time we arrived in Shibuya, we were very tired. There was more wandering around – we went to check out the Loft, some shops, this and that, and then it was time to go back to the hotel. 3 stops on the JR train and we were back in Shinjuku. We had curry + rice set for dinner this evening. Approximately 400yen.
<b>Day 3</b>
Our train to Hakone was at 7.30am. It was scheduled to arrive just before 9am in Hakone. The Odakyu Romance Car (Limited Express) as mentioned earlier is similar to the Shinkansen and very comfortable. Unlike the normal trains (which do not have individual seats but instead have bench seats across the length of the carriage, if you know what I mean), this train has numbered seats, baggage space and a meal cart service as well. The trip was fast, comfortable and pleasant.
I made reservations at the Hotel Senkei after some research on Hakone ryokans. Hotel Senkei was right in Hakone-Yumoto town (10 mins walk from the Station), so it was very convenient although others may prefer staying by the Lake or up the mountain. Hotel Senkei was pretty unique in the sense that it seemed to wish to be every kind of accommodation – traditional high-end ryokan, normal ryokan and normal western-style hotel (Senkei Plaza). All three “annexes” are on the premise and all guests are allowed to use the hotel’s onsen (1 outdoor – alternate between makes and females depending on the hours; and 1 indoor each for males and females). We chose the normal ryokan option – the weekday plan for a tatami room for 3 was 13,900 per pax. This rate included room, onsen use, in-room Japanese dinner and in-room Japanese breakfast. I found it extremely reasonable for all that we experienced. The hotel layout was also very unique and pretty…the outdoor bath was on the roof and was very nicely landscaped. Our room had a small balcony as well.
So after dropping our overnight bags at the hotel, we proceeded to do the “Hakone circuit”. As this route is the popular Hakone “to-do”, it was pretty easy getting going as all local and foreign tourists seemed to be doing the same thing. We did the circuit anti-clockwise, i.e. we first took the Hozan train up the mountain, then the Cable car and then the Ropeway to the volcanic area, then cruise the lake and back to town by bus. We didn’t stop at the outdoor museum as we wanted to finish the circuit early and enjoy the onsen and the ryokan. On the Ropeway, we had brilliant views of Mt Fuji (like I mentioned, clear, sunny, perfect weather all through our trip) so that alone already made the trip worthwhile. At the volcanic area (sorry, forgot the name as I don’t have my brochures with me right now), we took the Exploration Path and trekked up the mountain/volcano.
The sulphurous smell was overt but not overwhelming. The path was very pretty, so we took plenty of photos. Mt Fuji appeared in many of course. Up the mountain/volcano, we joined the crowds and bought those black volcanic hard-boiled eggs. I had read that either the yolk or white was runny and didn’t taste good. But what we got were like normal hard-boiled eggs…solid whites, solid yolk. We had wanted to try one for the fun of it (supposedly, eating one extends your lifespan by 7 years!) but they now sold 6 for 500yen in standard packages, so we each had 2 eggs. A packet of salt was included and surprisingly, the eggs turned out very nice (or more accurately, they tasted just as normal hard-boiled eggs). We ate them right then and there and in the end, two eggs each was enough as our lunch that day.
After lingering over black volcanic eggs, we retraced our steps back to the Ropeway station only to find that the next part of the circuit (Ropeway towards Togendai where we were supposed to take the sightseeing ship across Lake Ashi) was closed. The Ropeway company had shuttle buses to take us to the next destination and this was where we had to wait the longest. The Ropeway usually runs continuously, and it wouldn’t have taken us more than 10-15 minutes to reach the next part of our circuit. Instead, there was one single shuttle bus deployed to ferry everyone and the traffic was awful (maybe because it was a public holiday?) up the mountain. So, we had to queue for more than 1 hour just waiting for the bus to return from the bottom of the mountain and the 3 of us were lucky to be the last people to squeeze up the bus (with a whole long queue behind us waiting for the next bus which was probably going to take another hour) – I actually had to sit on the steps next to the bus driver and made it down to the lake in 20 minutes. Looking at the cars lining up bumper-to-bumper going UP the mountain, I was very tempted to wave to them and tell them to take a u-turn and go home instead!
While queuing for the bus, we took turns to shop at the souvenir shop. I bought 3 Yosegi wooden trick boxes which were very fun. Yosegi is the mosaic wood craft famous in the Hakone area and you can see the intricate wood mosaic patterns on many different products including trays, bins, chopstick rests etc. The best I feel are the trick/puzzle boxes – it takes multiple steps to move the panels of the box before one could open up the box. The more “steps” it took, the more expensive the boxes were. I liked my boxes very much…it’s like I could store anything in them and no one but me (and others who know these boxes
could open them! Anyway, my point was that the souvenir shop here sells the cheapest Yosegi woodcraft products as far as I could see, so this is the place to buy if you were interested.Ok, by the time we reached the lake, the circuit had already taken much longer than we expected due to the delay. We were getting tired (plus no lunch except for those eggs) but the thought of our comfortable ryokan and onsen (females get to use the outdoor bath this afternoon and night!) pushed us on. We then took one of those colourful pirate ships (a pleasant cruise on the lake with good views all around) to reach Hakonemachi (about 20 mins). From Hakonemachi, we trekked a very pleasant trail to Motohakone. Along this trail, we passed the Hakone Checkpoint Museum, the Detached Palace Garden, Cedar avenue…the walking was all very pleasant due to the cool but sunny weather. After about 30 mins of walking, we reached Motohakone and took a bus back to Hakone-Yumoto (40 mins) before making our way back to the ryokan.
Once checked into our room, we were served sweets and tea. It was 5pm then and we scheduled our dinner to be at 7pm. After hanging around our room for awhile, we decided to change into our yukatas and check out the onsen. Luckily for us, no one else was there so we went ahead for a soak (after devising complicated manoeuvres on how we were going to undress and bathe without looking at each other!) The outdoor onsen was very pretty indeed and we had a very nice time in the bath, chatting about our day at Hakone, listening to insects chirping etc.
Back in our room, immediately after our shower, our dinner arrived. There were lots and lots of food. Sukiyaki, mushroom rice, sashimi, many little plates of this and that, tempura, udon, miso soup etc. The rice actually cooked right at our table as we ate other stuff. Because it was autumn, chestnut, sweet potato, persimmons were the seasonal foods. There were more than enough food and, luckily for us, we liked them all; so apart from being very, very full at the end of the meal, we managed to finish everything. Having our own personal server, I think it would have been a bit embarrassing for us to have plenty of leftover food had we not liked the food.
Our beds were laid out on the floor for us after our dinner was cleared and the 3 of us spent the rest of the night lounging, drinking lots of green tea, reading and basically just relaxing. I find Hakone to be a very pleasant place…small traditional town, mountains, rivers, lakes, hotsprings, boating & fishing on the lake, exploring mountain towns, checking out volcanoes, viewing Mt Fuji – there really was plenty to do there…just my kind of weekend trip destination. It was no wonder that the traffic was so bad as I gathered many Tokyoites think so too!
The next morning, before we had fully digested the previous night’s dinner, a full Japanese breakfast was served in the room. There was less food than dinner but still plenty – yoghurt (ya, yoghurt), fried fish, rice, miso soup, egg custard, more little plates of this and that etc etc. This time round, I couldn’t quite eat them all, mainly because I’m a one-cup-coffee-at-the-office-desk-for-breakfast kind of girl. But I managed 70% (including eating the fried fish for breakfast!!) while my cousin and friend managed most of it. Our server was very surprised when she saw the whole bucket (yes, bucket) full of rice untouched by the 3 of us but we were too full to feel apologetic.
I had to rest from overeating at breakfast before we managed to get going. No soaking in the onsen this morning. We checked-out, walked into town to buy some food souvenirs (chestnut confectionary were in season) and then decided we may as well return to Tokyo. Hotel Senkei – highly recommended. This whole trip to Hakone was a top highlight of my trip.
Anyway, at the station, once again, we stuck to our earlier decision not to “upgrade” to the Romance Car and instead took the next available normal (express) train back to Shinjuku. The price was already included in our Hakone Freepass ticket anyway, so why pay extra when we had all the time in the world. The normal train was like…well, a normal train…we had seats (our backs to the window) facing the opposite bench with other people staring at us. The train stopped along the way and filled up steadily. By 1 hr and 20 mins, it started getting distinctly uncomfortable as more and more people stood in front and surrounded us. With no room to shift around, I sat stiffly, counting the stops to our destination. By 1 hr 30 mins, I wished for the toilet. The last half hour was agony…how I wished we had just sprung the 870yen each for some “romance” after all. And to think we were already on the express train and not the local one.
But I survived and after dropping our stuff back at the hotel (advantageous to stay right by the station), we spent the rest of the day at the Ueno Ameyoko market and Akihabara. Later that night, back at Shinjuku, we bumped into a very cosy and nice ramen place and had ramen, chicken and pork cutlets and juicy gyoza. This place specialised in ramen and cutlets so the quality was very good and the portions huge. But because the food was so good, we had to finish everything (and also because everyone around us finished every last drop), so once again, we stuffed ourselves and had to crawl back to the hotel. Huge bowl of ramen + pork cutlet set ~1000yen. Gyoza (5 pieces) ~500yen. We went back the next day and shared the ramen instead of having an order each.
I'll continue this report later. It's not extremely interesting but I hope someone may find it useful somehow.
Thanks for reading!
Oct 15th, 2006, 12:03 PM
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Oh JannaG, you make me feel so guilty for not posting my report yet!! Sorry everyone - been working TONS of hours (100 hrs of OT in September, 42 hrs OT so far this month plus I'm working another 6+ hrs today) and just have not had time to do much except work, eat and sleep. I am becoming that proverbial boring person.
Janna, great job reporting. We took a one day tour to Mt Fuji & Hakone, but next time I'd definitely like to do something more along the lines of what you did.
Thanks for posting your report and, again, sorry to everyone for being so late with mine.
Judy
Janna, great job reporting. We took a one day tour to Mt Fuji & Hakone, but next time I'd definitely like to do something more along the lines of what you did.
Thanks for posting your report and, again, sorry to everyone for being so late with mine.
Judy
Oct 16th, 2006, 12:20 AM
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<b>Day 5</b>
On to Day 5 as I inadvertently covered Day 4 in the continuous narration on Hakone without labelling it as such.
Also, I forgot to mention in the previous instalment that from the Ameyoko market (Ueno), Akihabara was easily reached by walking. Simply follow the train tracks towards Akihabara and we were there in less than 20 minutes. Nothing much to see on the way but it saved us the hassle of buying a train ticket and travelling for just one stop.
So back to today. The first order of the day was supposedly the Tsukiji fish market but of course, we were too lazy to wake up early in the morning. Plus the only reason WE had wanted to go to the market was to eat fresh sushi and, to be honest, we had had our fill of sushi/sashimi from our Hakone meals for now. So we lingered until 8.30am and then it was off to the Edo-Tokyo Museum at Ryogoku, easily reached on a JR line once again (I don’t think we’ve taken the subway yet so far). The museum was within a 2-minute walk from the station if you got the right exit (we NEVER got the right exits in all our days in Tokyo somehow, not even for our “home” station, but that’s usually not a problem at all, so don’t fret about exits too much in general). Even at the wrong exit on the opposite side of the station, it still took us only 5 minutes to reach the museum.
The Edo-Tokyo Museum was excellent and had great facilities. It was pleasant spending a few hours browsing at the exhibits and reading up on some Japanese history. We did not eat lunch on-site but instead had a quick udon meal along the street by the train station. Not great but cheap and serviceable. As the Edo-Tokyo Museum was right next to a sumo wrestling stadium, we did manage to see quite a few Sumo wrestlers (dressed in their yukatas) walking around the vicinity. The 3 or 4 we observed were very tall but not extremely big. A couple didn’t look Japanese at all. Still, it was a bonus for us. Sighting Sumo wrestlers in Tokyo was much easier than trying to catch a glimpse of geishas/maikos in Kyoto!
After the museum, it was off to the Sensoji temple. Can’t remember what train/subway changes we made but it was not difficult (just a little hassle changing lines for such a short distance) and pretty soon we were there. The place was rather crowded even though it was a weekday. The temple itself was under a bit of construction. We did a quick tour and did not linger. Couldn’t find my fortune in English either so did not buy one.
The shopping street leading to and from the temple was pretty fun but when it comes down to prices, not all that cheap either. Comparatively, I found the gift shop at the Meiji Shrine and the Ameyoko market stalls and shops cheaper for general souvenirs including kitsch t-shirts, toe socks, slippers, those traditional Japanese-cloth covered mirrors, coin pouches and other misc. knick knacks. We did buy snacks though…there were lots of different stuff to buy and try…bean pastries, rice crackers, sesame/almond/green tea ice cream etc. Also, right outside the Kari...gate with the huge lantern, on the left as you exit, is a paper shop with lots of lovely Japanese paper products and cards. Worth a look if you’re looking for paper. Not cheap but very, very pretty.
After this, we were supposed to walk towards Kap…shi, the area famous for those plastic food models and cutlery. But the skies were darkening and we were tired (I don’t know why we were tired but we were), so we decided to head back to Shinjuku. Back at our home turf, we browsed the supermarket/food areas of the departmental stores and my friend opted to skip dinner and went shopping for clothes before the stores closed.
In Japan, from what we observed, when a store is said to close at 8.30pm, by 8pm, all the staff were already closing accounts, packing their merchandise etc. It made it very difficult for us to browse till the last minute and there was even once that the salesgirl had to run to the cash counter to make sure they don’t close up before we made our purchase…and that was a full 20 mins BEFORE closing time. If you’ve shopped in Singapore and Malaysia, you’d know that our shopping hours are long and we could even pay after the closing hours (they just pull down the shutters to prevent new shoppers from coming in after the closing hours). So, because of the non-conducive shopping environment (I was pretty stressed) of the departmental stores in Japan, I opted to check out the electronic stores in the Shinjuku area and have another bowl of ramen instead.
Speaking of electronic shops, Shinjuku is a new area to check out electronics if you never made it to Akihabara. There were plenty around the train station area (near our hotel) and they appeared even busier than those supposedly famous shops in Akihabara (e.g. Laox – which was virtually deserted when we were there the night before). Digital cameras like Sony, Canon and Casio were good buys (yep, we’re also gadget freaks and know our prices) and I had heard from another friend that Toshiba laptops in Japan were also good deals when compared to Singapore (which I feel already have very good prices to begin with). We did not buy anything but browsed for hours as it was easy handling the goods with no one bothering us.
Also in the same Shinjuku area were plenty of luggage shops so those in need of extra luggage could come this way. Apparently, Tokyo people love their luggage…everywhere we went, we saw students, office workers, mothers etc. dragging around their own little (and not so little) roller luggage whether it was to go to work, shopping, put baby stuff, to the park, to Disneyland etc. In the beginning, we were rather confused - “Are these people all going on a trip?” but later we figured out that they probably prefer the convenience of rolling a luggage instead of carrying bags of stuff.
On to Day 5 as I inadvertently covered Day 4 in the continuous narration on Hakone without labelling it as such.
Also, I forgot to mention in the previous instalment that from the Ameyoko market (Ueno), Akihabara was easily reached by walking. Simply follow the train tracks towards Akihabara and we were there in less than 20 minutes. Nothing much to see on the way but it saved us the hassle of buying a train ticket and travelling for just one stop.
So back to today. The first order of the day was supposedly the Tsukiji fish market but of course, we were too lazy to wake up early in the morning. Plus the only reason WE had wanted to go to the market was to eat fresh sushi and, to be honest, we had had our fill of sushi/sashimi from our Hakone meals for now. So we lingered until 8.30am and then it was off to the Edo-Tokyo Museum at Ryogoku, easily reached on a JR line once again (I don’t think we’ve taken the subway yet so far). The museum was within a 2-minute walk from the station if you got the right exit (we NEVER got the right exits in all our days in Tokyo somehow, not even for our “home” station, but that’s usually not a problem at all, so don’t fret about exits too much in general). Even at the wrong exit on the opposite side of the station, it still took us only 5 minutes to reach the museum.
The Edo-Tokyo Museum was excellent and had great facilities. It was pleasant spending a few hours browsing at the exhibits and reading up on some Japanese history. We did not eat lunch on-site but instead had a quick udon meal along the street by the train station. Not great but cheap and serviceable. As the Edo-Tokyo Museum was right next to a sumo wrestling stadium, we did manage to see quite a few Sumo wrestlers (dressed in their yukatas) walking around the vicinity. The 3 or 4 we observed were very tall but not extremely big. A couple didn’t look Japanese at all. Still, it was a bonus for us. Sighting Sumo wrestlers in Tokyo was much easier than trying to catch a glimpse of geishas/maikos in Kyoto!
After the museum, it was off to the Sensoji temple. Can’t remember what train/subway changes we made but it was not difficult (just a little hassle changing lines for such a short distance) and pretty soon we were there. The place was rather crowded even though it was a weekday. The temple itself was under a bit of construction. We did a quick tour and did not linger. Couldn’t find my fortune in English either so did not buy one.
The shopping street leading to and from the temple was pretty fun but when it comes down to prices, not all that cheap either. Comparatively, I found the gift shop at the Meiji Shrine and the Ameyoko market stalls and shops cheaper for general souvenirs including kitsch t-shirts, toe socks, slippers, those traditional Japanese-cloth covered mirrors, coin pouches and other misc. knick knacks. We did buy snacks though…there were lots of different stuff to buy and try…bean pastries, rice crackers, sesame/almond/green tea ice cream etc. Also, right outside the Kari...gate with the huge lantern, on the left as you exit, is a paper shop with lots of lovely Japanese paper products and cards. Worth a look if you’re looking for paper. Not cheap but very, very pretty.
After this, we were supposed to walk towards Kap…shi, the area famous for those plastic food models and cutlery. But the skies were darkening and we were tired (I don’t know why we were tired but we were), so we decided to head back to Shinjuku. Back at our home turf, we browsed the supermarket/food areas of the departmental stores and my friend opted to skip dinner and went shopping for clothes before the stores closed.
In Japan, from what we observed, when a store is said to close at 8.30pm, by 8pm, all the staff were already closing accounts, packing their merchandise etc. It made it very difficult for us to browse till the last minute and there was even once that the salesgirl had to run to the cash counter to make sure they don’t close up before we made our purchase…and that was a full 20 mins BEFORE closing time. If you’ve shopped in Singapore and Malaysia, you’d know that our shopping hours are long and we could even pay after the closing hours (they just pull down the shutters to prevent new shoppers from coming in after the closing hours). So, because of the non-conducive shopping environment (I was pretty stressed) of the departmental stores in Japan, I opted to check out the electronic stores in the Shinjuku area and have another bowl of ramen instead.
Speaking of electronic shops, Shinjuku is a new area to check out electronics if you never made it to Akihabara. There were plenty around the train station area (near our hotel) and they appeared even busier than those supposedly famous shops in Akihabara (e.g. Laox – which was virtually deserted when we were there the night before). Digital cameras like Sony, Canon and Casio were good buys (yep, we’re also gadget freaks and know our prices) and I had heard from another friend that Toshiba laptops in Japan were also good deals when compared to Singapore (which I feel already have very good prices to begin with). We did not buy anything but browsed for hours as it was easy handling the goods with no one bothering us.
Also in the same Shinjuku area were plenty of luggage shops so those in need of extra luggage could come this way. Apparently, Tokyo people love their luggage…everywhere we went, we saw students, office workers, mothers etc. dragging around their own little (and not so little) roller luggage whether it was to go to work, shopping, put baby stuff, to the park, to Disneyland etc. In the beginning, we were rather confused - “Are these people all going on a trip?” but later we figured out that they probably prefer the convenience of rolling a luggage instead of carrying bags of stuff.
Oct 16th, 2006, 02:06 PM
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Great trip report...reminded me of my week in Tokyo in 2001-----I was more blatantly photograhing the Hirajuku species...sorry but they were way too weird!! My daughter and son picked up a few of the T shirts with nonsensical English compositon..fun.
And the basement food bargains after 5pm at Takashimaya.....were delicious at half price
Best breakfast though I swear was Dennys though we lived at ryokans and ate at neighborhood restaurants
happy travels
And the basement food bargains after 5pm at Takashimaya.....were delicious at half price
Best breakfast though I swear was Dennys though we lived at ryokans and ate at neighborhood restaurants
happy travels
Oct 16th, 2006, 02:19 PM
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I see the Senkai hotel has a vegetarian option for the dinner meal. This is not an easy feature to find; I looked for this when we looked for ryokan in Hakone as my daughter is vegetarian, and I could not find this option available. So thanks for the tip, it will be helpful info to recommend to other vegetarians who are visiting Hakone.
