Japan, halfwayish point
We're actually about 3/4 of the way through our trip by now, and were completely worn out, yay! We basically took today off from travelling and exploring and have been rather bummy, so I figured I'd post an update of the major points of interest of our adventures so far (just for you, Chifley :P)
So, we have been to:
-Tokyo
-Nikko
-Chuzenji
-Edomura
-Gotemba
-Fujisan
-Kyoto
Next stop after Kyoto will be Osaka and we're probably going to go to Kobe as well, and maybe somewhere else. It's pretty undecided yet. We spent ~7-8 days in Tokyo, and 1 in each other the other places, though Gotemba and Fujisan were the same day, so our trip so far has been very Tokyo heavy, but it's such a big city that we hadn't even scratched the surface of all there is to see there.
What we did see though, in Tokyo, included the Imperial Palace gardens, which would have been a lot prettier if we could have appreciated them (it was bucketing down with rain, we were hungry and had sore feet), but they were still pretty cool, and the Imperial compound has a big moat around it. We went to (suburby-type regions) Asakusabashi, Akihabara, Ueno, Kichijoji, Nakano, Shinjuku, Asakusa, Tokyo, Ginza, Gotanda, Harajuku, Ikebukero, Odaiba, Shibuya, Shinagawa, Nakanobu... I think that's all. It's kind of a lot when I write like that, but we felt like we hardly went anywhere each day we were in Tokyo. We went back like 3 times to places like Asakusa, Akihabara, Shinjuku and Ueno, because there was so much to see. We totally didn't do the shrine thing - we saw the one in Asakusa, which was very cool and big and old and the streets around where traditional old style, so the atmosphere was pretty awesome and totally what we expected of Japan lol. But other than that, we kind of got over the shrines very quickly - they all look the same, and it's very "buy this!", rather than being a functional space. We were totally disappointed when we first got to Tokyo - Asakusabashi, where we stayed first, seemed very rundown and drab and not at all skyscrapery, and the buildings all looked about to fall over. And it was really spookily dead. The second day we were there was a Monday, and everyone behaved like drones, and no one smiled anywhere, and everyone seemed to walk in set lines, it was so creepy. Tuesday was better and people seemed more like people, and shops were actually open, so we figure Monday everyone is too hungover or something to function. We also failed at finding lively spots for the first couple days, and kept exiting stations on the creepy dead sides. When we went back afterwards, and left via the good exits, we were like "wow!" (as we'd expected to be intially).
Couple things about Tokyo - there are no benches in public areas. There are also no bins. There is also very little shade. This makes cheap exploration of cities difficult, because feet get very sore walking on pavements for hours on end without rest. There are also no parks as such - the big public parks, like in Ueno, are actually just brick paths lined with trees with the occasional water feature and shrine. No lawn, or flowers, or horticulture of note. It was a bit depressing... We found one real park in Kichijoji, but got thoroughly drenched when we went to play on the grass.
Okay Sam is hungry, so we have to go feed, hopefully I will continue this later ^_^
So, we have been to:
-Tokyo
-Nikko
-Chuzenji
-Edomura
-Gotemba
-Fujisan
-Kyoto
Next stop after Kyoto will be Osaka and we're probably going to go to Kobe as well, and maybe somewhere else. It's pretty undecided yet. We spent ~7-8 days in Tokyo, and 1 in each other the other places, though Gotemba and Fujisan were the same day, so our trip so far has been very Tokyo heavy, but it's such a big city that we hadn't even scratched the surface of all there is to see there.
What we did see though, in Tokyo, included the Imperial Palace gardens, which would have been a lot prettier if we could have appreciated them (it was bucketing down with rain, we were hungry and had sore feet), but they were still pretty cool, and the Imperial compound has a big moat around it. We went to (suburby-type regions) Asakusabashi, Akihabara, Ueno, Kichijoji, Nakano, Shinjuku, Asakusa, Tokyo, Ginza, Gotanda, Harajuku, Ikebukero, Odaiba, Shibuya, Shinagawa, Nakanobu... I think that's all. It's kind of a lot when I write like that, but we felt like we hardly went anywhere each day we were in Tokyo. We went back like 3 times to places like Asakusa, Akihabara, Shinjuku and Ueno, because there was so much to see. We totally didn't do the shrine thing - we saw the one in Asakusa, which was very cool and big and old and the streets around where traditional old style, so the atmosphere was pretty awesome and totally what we expected of Japan lol. But other than that, we kind of got over the shrines very quickly - they all look the same, and it's very "buy this!", rather than being a functional space. We were totally disappointed when we first got to Tokyo - Asakusabashi, where we stayed first, seemed very rundown and drab and not at all skyscrapery, and the buildings all looked about to fall over. And it was really spookily dead. The second day we were there was a Monday, and everyone behaved like drones, and no one smiled anywhere, and everyone seemed to walk in set lines, it was so creepy. Tuesday was better and people seemed more like people, and shops were actually open, so we figure Monday everyone is too hungover or something to function. We also failed at finding lively spots for the first couple days, and kept exiting stations on the creepy dead sides. When we went back afterwards, and left via the good exits, we were like "wow!" (as we'd expected to be intially).
Couple things about Tokyo - there are no benches in public areas. There are also no bins. There is also very little shade. This makes cheap exploration of cities difficult, because feet get very sore walking on pavements for hours on end without rest. There are also no parks as such - the big public parks, like in Ueno, are actually just brick paths lined with trees with the occasional water feature and shrine. No lawn, or flowers, or horticulture of note. It was a bit depressing... We found one real park in Kichijoji, but got thoroughly drenched when we went to play on the grass.
Okay Sam is hungry, so we have to go feed, hopefully I will continue this later ^_^