Japan Part II of II
Day 5:
After we had visited Tokyo Disney Sea our tour took us to see Mount Fuji up close. A bus picked us up from our hotel and we were soon off to the resort town of Hakone, which is near Mt. Fuji. Mt. Fuji is often covered in clouds and on the day we went to see the mountain, it was extremely cloudy. When we reached station 5 (the highest point you can go by vehicle) all we could see was fog.
When we left the mountain, we were then treated to a boat ride on Lake Ashi and then a cable car ride up a nearby mountain, which has a spectacular view of Mt. Fuji...if the sun would have been shining :(
Our lunch in Hakone was a traditional Japanese Meal. We were given a choice of a vegetarian meal or a bunch of raw fish. Reena and I opted for the vegetarian meal. I thought it was surprisingly good, but Reena was disappointed. I still don't know what most of the vegetables were that we ate, but I'd eat more...I ended up eating whatever Reena didn't want on her plate!
Day 6:
From Hakone we got on the Bullet Train to Kyoto. The Bullet Trains in Japan are always on time and can travel up to 180 miles per hour.
Our tour was so on top of things that when we arrived in Kyoto there was a tour guide waiting on the platform directly at the door where we exited the bullet train! If anyone is looking to travel to the orient, the people at explorient.com did a wonderful job putting our trip together.
Kyoto (and nearby Nara) turned out to be the best place for sight seeing. Our first afternoon in Kyoto was when we were taken to the Nara deer park, where a hoard of deer roam freely throughout the park, nudging all the tourists until they feed them with crackers from the local stands. Reena couldn't resist feeding the deer while we were there.
Once we made it past the deer we saw the Todaiji Temple, which has the world's largest bronze Buddha and the Kasuga Shrine, which has more than 3000 lanterns.
Day 7:
Day seven of our trip took us to a number of fascinating places. The most memorable was the amazing Golden Pavilion. This was the only location where everyone from the tour was asking for someone outside their group to photograph them so that everyone could be in the picture. We were no exception and asked a couple who was on our tour the day before (and staying at our hotel) to take our picture:
The next stop was Nijo Castle, the former home of the Shogun. The Shogun was more than a little paranoid and built nightingale floors throughout the building. These floors creaked whenever you took a step, and the sound of the squeaking floors resembled the call of a nightingale. It was great when the whole tour group would start walking at once and it sounded like a flock of birds was calling from the ground.
We were next taken to the Imperial Palace, where emperor Meiji used to rule. Below is a picture of the emperor's living quarters:
After lunch at the Handycraft Center (which had some really good pasta!), we were taken to visit the Heian Shrine and Sanjusangendo Hall, the hall with 1001 identical golden statues of the goddess of mercy. The emperor had commissioned these statues in the hopes of calming the people of this area who had been fighting amongst themselves for years. It was a great day of sightseeing; an impressive way to end our guided tour.
Day 8-9:
We left our tour group to explore one last city on our own...Osaka. Osaka turned out not to be as exciting as the other places we visited. Maybe it was because we didn't have a tour bus taking us around, or maybe there wasn't as much to do, but nonetheless we did make it to both Osaka Castle and the Umeda Sky Center. The Umeda Sky Center has an elevator to the 35th Floor, where you take a glass escalator up to the 40th Floor, and finally another elevator up to the roof!
From the top of the Umeda Sky Center you can see all of Osaka and when the airplanes land at Osaka airport, they look huge coming in...because you are so close to them.
After a night in the Osaka Hilton we packed up our things and took a bus to the airport. Our flight back to Detroit left Osaka at 1:30p.m. on November 28, 2008 local time. We arrived in Detroit at 11:00 a.m. on November 28, 2008 local time! It was an amazing trip...now time to plan the nest one!
After we had visited Tokyo Disney Sea our tour took us to see Mount Fuji up close. A bus picked us up from our hotel and we were soon off to the resort town of Hakone, which is near Mt. Fuji. Mt. Fuji is often covered in clouds and on the day we went to see the mountain, it was extremely cloudy. When we reached station 5 (the highest point you can go by vehicle) all we could see was fog.
When we left the mountain, we were then treated to a boat ride on Lake Ashi and then a cable car ride up a nearby mountain, which has a spectacular view of Mt. Fuji...if the sun would have been shining :(
Our lunch in Hakone was a traditional Japanese Meal. We were given a choice of a vegetarian meal or a bunch of raw fish. Reena and I opted for the vegetarian meal. I thought it was surprisingly good, but Reena was disappointed. I still don't know what most of the vegetables were that we ate, but I'd eat more...I ended up eating whatever Reena didn't want on her plate!
Day 6:
From Hakone we got on the Bullet Train to Kyoto. The Bullet Trains in Japan are always on time and can travel up to 180 miles per hour.
Our tour was so on top of things that when we arrived in Kyoto there was a tour guide waiting on the platform directly at the door where we exited the bullet train! If anyone is looking to travel to the orient, the people at explorient.com did a wonderful job putting our trip together.
Kyoto (and nearby Nara) turned out to be the best place for sight seeing. Our first afternoon in Kyoto was when we were taken to the Nara deer park, where a hoard of deer roam freely throughout the park, nudging all the tourists until they feed them with crackers from the local stands. Reena couldn't resist feeding the deer while we were there.
Once we made it past the deer we saw the Todaiji Temple, which has the world's largest bronze Buddha and the Kasuga Shrine, which has more than 3000 lanterns.
Day 7:
Day seven of our trip took us to a number of fascinating places. The most memorable was the amazing Golden Pavilion. This was the only location where everyone from the tour was asking for someone outside their group to photograph them so that everyone could be in the picture. We were no exception and asked a couple who was on our tour the day before (and staying at our hotel) to take our picture:
The next stop was Nijo Castle, the former home of the Shogun. The Shogun was more than a little paranoid and built nightingale floors throughout the building. These floors creaked whenever you took a step, and the sound of the squeaking floors resembled the call of a nightingale. It was great when the whole tour group would start walking at once and it sounded like a flock of birds was calling from the ground.
We were next taken to the Imperial Palace, where emperor Meiji used to rule. Below is a picture of the emperor's living quarters:
After lunch at the Handycraft Center (which had some really good pasta!), we were taken to visit the Heian Shrine and Sanjusangendo Hall, the hall with 1001 identical golden statues of the goddess of mercy. The emperor had commissioned these statues in the hopes of calming the people of this area who had been fighting amongst themselves for years. It was a great day of sightseeing; an impressive way to end our guided tour.
Day 8-9:
We left our tour group to explore one last city on our own...Osaka. Osaka turned out not to be as exciting as the other places we visited. Maybe it was because we didn't have a tour bus taking us around, or maybe there wasn't as much to do, but nonetheless we did make it to both Osaka Castle and the Umeda Sky Center. The Umeda Sky Center has an elevator to the 35th Floor, where you take a glass escalator up to the 40th Floor, and finally another elevator up to the roof!
From the top of the Umeda Sky Center you can see all of Osaka and when the airplanes land at Osaka airport, they look huge coming in...because you are so close to them.
After a night in the Osaka Hilton we packed up our things and took a bus to the airport. Our flight back to Detroit left Osaka at 1:30p.m. on November 28, 2008 local time. We arrived in Detroit at 11:00 a.m. on November 28, 2008 local time! It was an amazing trip...now time to plan the nest one!