Awaiting us in Yuzawa were 2 smiling, waving friends, which felt so nice in a country as alien (in a good way) as Japan. It was going to be great spending 2 days with people who would be able to help us navigate and understand Japan a little better. Yuzawa is a mountain resort town, so unless you’re into skiing, there’s not much on offer. This being said, it’s a beautiful place and has some great onsen (that are used to and accepting of tattooed foreigners). Our first day was spent visiting a sake factory in the afternoon and then at an onsen set at the base of a mountain in the early evening. It was magical; soaking in the steaming bath while the snow fell around us (this is however after the initial awkwardness of being naked with complete strangers – not something most westerners are used to!). We were then up early the next morning ready to head to Nagano to see the snow monkeys. Miho (one of our hosts) had made us a delicious breakfast of homemade rice balls, rolled omelette (which she taught me how to make!) and miso soup. Heartily fed, we set off on what may have been one of the most beautiful drives of the trip. Snow-capped mountains, little villages, evergreen pines covered in snow...it was stunning. All this, before arriving at a place Dani and I had been dreaming about since we met Canadian friends of ours 5 years earlier in Laos who showed us their pictures of these gorgeous fluffy monkeys bathing in hot springs to warm up in the snow. It did not disappoint. The monkeys were as cute and fluffy up close and not even a little bit phased by the people around. It was well worth the effort to get there (we were lucky enough to get a ride one way but having done the journey in reverse it’s not a cheap or easy place to get to as it requires a Shinkasen from Tokyo Ueno Station to Nagano then an electric train to Yudanaka). After a delicious lunch of soba noodles we had to bid farewell to Miho and Yu with promises of seeing them again in New Zealand. In Yamanouchi (the onsen town nearest to the snow monkey park) we had decided to splash out a little on staying in a ryokan that we had found on AirBnB. As it was the cheapest ryokan in the area we should have guessed it wouldn’t live up to expectations but just how disappointing it was upset us. I guess we had expected a level of cleanliness in Japan that we actually learnt wasn’t the case in a lot of hostels as they cut corners and costs by using volunteers rather than paid staff who aren’t invested in the business or it’s customers. It meant we ended up paying twice the price of somewhere else to sleep on the floor in a room covered in creepy crawlies, with half a bathroom, and a sink that had been dismantled and was dripping brown slime from the hair clogging the pipe into a bowl on the floor. Needless to say it wasn’t our favourite accommodation in Japan! The town of Yamanouchi itself was pretty enough and we didn’t dislike our day there after the snow monkeys, but given the opportunity again we wouldn’t bother staying there for a night. A better alternative probably would have been a night in Nagano as this is relatively quick and easy to get to from the snow monkey park. Upon returning to Tokyo we were actually going to stay with a friend in Matsudo, which is sort of part of Tokyo, sort of not. Again, luckily for us. our friend Natsuki had kindly offered to pick us up from Oomiya station so all we had to do was make it there. Easy right? Well as you may have already gathered Japan is expensive so to save a few hundred yen (it does make a difference when breakfast only costs ¥400/$4.80 AUD/3.65 USD) we walked the 2.5km to the train station instead of taking the bus. The train being your only option to Nagano means that it costs ¥1260/$15.20 AUD/11.50 USD (as they can basically charge what they want) and then you can take the shinkansen (bullet train) back to Tokyo. The Nagano Dentetsu line is a private line so cannot be taken with any JR pass but the train from Nagano to Tokyo is covered by both the JR pass and JR East pass (see post about ‘How we beat the JR pass’). Staying in Matsudo meant we got a different perspective on life in bustling a metropolis. It is still as quiet and orderly but there seems to be more space and the people seem less…intense! We had a great night out with Natsuki and her friends on our first night and Dani finally got to achieve another food goal of eating chicken sashimi (yes she really did eat raw chicken...and survived). Natsuki being a nurse, had to work on the other days of our stay but it really gave me a better insight into nursing in Japan (honestly, nursing friends look into the expectations of nurses in Japan, we should count ourselves lucky in Australia and NZ...sorry UK I still think you guys may have it the worst because they still pay you well in Japan). On our first full day back in the Tokyo area, we decided to head to Yokohama via the Tokyo Fish Market. We arrived at the fish market and wandered the stalls noting that this didn’t look much like what we were expecting at all. The samples of snacks were fantastic and we sampled our away around but it turns out we never did make it to the heart of the fish market where the tuna auctions are held. I’m not sure why we didn’t find it but if you’re heading to the fish market make sure you don’t make the mistake of thinking the stalls outside are it. Having eaten all of the snacks we headed back to Yurakucho station but made a little detour to the basement entrance to the nearby metro line to geek out over the home of Jiro’s Sushi (If you don’t know who this is he’s an 80 year old sushi chef who has a Michelin stared restaurant in a metro station. You can watch a fantastic documentary about him that we saw on a trip to Adelaide years ago called Jiro Dreams of Sushi). Standing outside and listening carefully we could hear the kitchen prep going on but unfortunately it was closed so that was as close as we were going to get to a Jiro experience! Next stop on our day trip was the Kirin Beer Factory. We had found out online that you could do a free brewery tour after which you could try the beer for free. This turned out to be a great trip because not only is the tour really well done (they give you an English translation guide) but they give you 3 glasses of free beer and a snack at the end! When do you ever get to drink for free…let alone free in a country as expensive as Japan?! We would both highly recommend this tour if you’re heading to Yokohama. It’s a 15-minute walk from Shin-Koyasu station and you just head in a put your name down for the next available tour. Sufficiently tipsy we headed for our final stop of the day the Ramen Museum (¥300/$3.60 AUD/2.75 USD pp). This was fast shaping up as a day of great discovery and also a day of great mistakes. Having missed the centre of the fish market that morning and having only had snacks to eat we were starving. Mistaking the Ramen Museum for an actual museum we thought we’d stop at Matsuya on the way. It turns on out the museum is more like a food court of all the ramen varieties found around Japan in a room that has been made to look like a street in Tokyo in the 1930s. Because we had already eaten this made this stop a little redundant as we had no desire to sample any of the wonderful looking ramens, but it was fun to wander around anyway.
We had plans the next day to meet up with another friend Noriko in the kitchen district of Tokyo, Kappabashi. Kappabashi is where all restaurants and chefs go to buy all their equipment at wholesale prices...If you’re wanting to pick up anything kitchen related in Japan this is where you need to come. Having emptied our bags of Central American souvenirs in Taiwan we made the mistake of believing we should fill all free space. This means I’m now the proud owner of a rectangular pan for rolled omelettes, cooking chopsticks, a thermos, tongs and a fish slice with my favourite character Gudetama on them and Dani needed (yes needed) the sushi covered green tea cup. This place was amazing but very dangerous when it comes to packing. After wandering the length of the area and bankrupting ourselves in the process, it was an easy walk to Asakusa, which is known as Old Tokyo. It’s pretty there, but rammed with people, which takes away slightly from what I’m guessing is a really nice area when you can see it! On our last full day in Tokyo we decided to have a planning day. This may confuse most but those of you long term travellers will understand not only the need for a rest day but also that it takes a lot of time and effort to budget backpack. We had a night bus booked for later that night so we thought it would be good to chill before the 2 hour long trek across Tokyo to catch the bus to Osaka (¥4500/$54.30 AUD/41.10 USD). After 2 weeks of dipping in and out of Tokyo it was time to head down to the more historic part of the country (The buses around Japan were definitely a huge money saving tip that we learnt from other travel bloggers. They are extremely comfortable, much cheaper than the trains and can save you a night of accommodation in some cases).
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We arrived into Haneda after midnight, tired and ready for bed. Immigration printed our entrance stamps and we were waved through. Desperate to catch the 1.40am bus to our hotel, we were mildly irritated when the customs officials decided to thoroughly check both our bags, but luckily we still made it onto the bus…just! Tip number one for Japan (specifically Haneda), try not to arrive after midnight as they have no public transport after 12am and the private buses are expensive. We paid ¥800 ($9.65 AUD/7.30 USD) each for a 5 minute bus journey! We’d booked ourselves into a fancy hotel by the airport because it was cheaper (including the bus) than catching a cab to Tokyo Disney which was our first stop in Japan. Hotel Relief Premium was amazing and we really wish we’d been able to stay longer but at $86.95 AUD (¥7,130/$66.70 USD) a night we couldn’t really justify it. However, if you’re looking for a reasonably priced (for Japan) airport hotel next to Haneda airport (don’t mistake it for Narita airport) this one was great. The following morning we got ready to make the cross Tokyo journey to Disney. Now, having taken the advice of other backpackers in Japan we had decided against getting a Japan Rail Pass, which meant having to plan our journeys quite carefully. It was on day one I discovered the massive difference that walking to a alternative station could make to the price of a journey. Worth noting that JR trains cross-country are often really expensive but inner city they are often the cheapest option. On our first day I discovered if we walked 2km to a different station it would save us over ¥500 each which is actually enough to buy you breakfast. The walking with backpacks isn’t for everyone but we thought we’d just see if we could get there and if not we’d jump on the metro line to the station. This became a common theme during our time in Japan...”we’ll just see how far we can walk and if it’s too much we’ll get on the train” (we didn’t take the transport option once in 6 weeks). Crossing Tokyo was surprisingly easy given its reputation. We also noticed almost immediately how clean and quiet it was. Here we were in one of the busiest cities in the world and you could literally hear a pin drop! As I had spent my 30th birthday at Disney California it only felt fitting that as a belated birthday treat, Dani got to go to Tokyo Disney. Having had the full Disney experience in California we decided we could book the cheaper and more grown up version this time...the Robot Hotel! (Henn Na Hotel Maihama Tokyo). This is about a 20 minute walk from Disney and, if you book in advance, better value than the Disney Resort Hotels. In saying this, it is not within our or anyone’s ‘backpack Japan budgets. For this reason and because it was a birthday treat we had a separate Disney budget’. Good to know though is that Tokyo Disney is actually cheaper to visit than it’s American and European counterparts. We weren’t heading to the parks until the next day so we decided to pop to 7-Eleven for some snacks before we could check into our hotel. We soon discovered that the snacks we had been led to believe were cheap in Japan such as rice balls were actually pretty expensive and the cost would really add up quickly if you were trying to make a meal. Luckily for us it was this day that we discovered what would become our staple all through Japan...Matsuya. Matsuya is a fast food chain that does mainly rice bowls and they’re delicious. We discovered we could easily get a good meal there for around ¥1000 ($12.20 AUD/9.35 USD) for both of us and at breakfast they have a set that includes a bowl of rice, an egg, a sausage, salad, nori and a side of your choice (tofu for me and beef for Dani) for ¥400 ($4.85 AUD/3.75 USD) for one. This was by far the best value meal we had in Japan and actually made it possible for us to stick to any kind of budget. I won’t bore you with details of our Disney trip if you want tips on Disney (prices, how to beat the queues etc) check it out here. After 4 wonderful nights in our Robot Hotel we were ready to tackle Japan. I had mapped out the cheapest route to our hostel and it would involve another 2km walk and a change at Tokyo station. Yet again it was surprisingly easy to change lines, find our way around Tokyo station and get to our hostel contrary to what we had both been led to believe about the busyness and potential chaos of Tokyo. Our first full day we had decided to head to Kamakura and for once, transport wise this looked like it was going to work out in our favour. There was a JR train going all the way from our hostel stop to Kamakura. There are 2 stations in Kamakura, the first being Kita-Kamakura which, is where we got off to visit Kenchoji temple (¥500/$6 AUD/4.55 USD). This turned out to be our favourite temple in Kamakura and although we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Mt Fuji from the top of the hill when we were there, it’s better if you arrive earlier in the day (we were there at midday) for the best chance. From here we walked to Hokokuji bamboo grove (¥200/$2.40 AUD/1.80 USD). Although smaller than its Kyoto counterpart it’s actually in our opinion more magical because it is quieter and you can actually walk through the bamboo. The adjoining gardens are also full of beautiful plants and flowers, making it a very worthwhile stop. Our final stop was to walk to Kamakura main town in search of the Buddha (¥200/$2.40 AUD/1.80 USD) at Kotoku-in. The statue is large but I feel we have been spoilt by other large Buddhas we’ve been lucky enough to see, so if you’ve travelled SE Asia you may want to skip this one. It’s a long day of walking if you’re doing it on foot but Kamakura is definitely worth the day trip. Tokyo has a lot to offer and is actually many villages that have been lumped together and given the name Tokyo, which literally translates as east capital. This means that there is a vast difference between areas. Obviously we had to do some proper exploring and our first stop was Shibuya, famed for the world’s busiest cross walk. Lucky for us we managed to walk across relatively unscathed because there were fewer people out at 11am on a rainy midweek day. Also popular in this area is high-end shopping, not something either of us have a particular interest in, so we just wandered through on our way to Harajuku. This is the area that you’ll see in your mind when you think of ‘cutesy’ Japan. It’s where you can purchase all your Hello Kitty merchandise, pick up food that is more suitable for a picture on Instagram than for consumption and play with a variety of animals while sipping on strawberry lattes with your face printed on. In short, it’s where all your weird Japanese fantasies can come true. I could have spent hours there people watching but unfortunately the rain wouldn’t let up, so, cold and wet we admitted defeat and headed back to the hostel after about an hour of solid rain and solid weird.
The last area we decided to explore before taking a break from Tokyo in the mountains was Akihabara. This is the area that all the eccentric Japanese gamer geeks hang out. This is postcard Tokyo...the flashing billboards, maid cafes, manga and anime everywhere. We thought the best way to get to know this area was by walking tour. We signed up for Tokyo Localized Free Walking Tour and got a great guide Hiroshi who splits his time evenly between L.A. and Tokyo giving him the greatest mix of mannerisms. As a good way to learn about some of the eccentricity of Japan and get a good in-depth look around one of its many districts, we can highly recommend this tour. After our day in Akihabara, it was time for a break from all the weird and wonderful Tokyo provides, so we set of to see some friends in Yuzawa. |
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