Here is the report of my trip to Japan in 2003. I first put it at my friend’s website and now decide to post it on my sites too. Since it was some years ago, some information may not be current. Hope that it can be still helpful if anyone is interested in going to those places.
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It was a nice-days trip. I first arrived in Japan on 4/26. I stayed with my friend and pretty much did nothing on the first day. I enjoyed traditional Japanese food at my friend’s place for the dinner and the breakfast. The second day I moved to a hotel in Shibuya. I waited for my friend, Deborah, to arrive from Taiwan that evening. Therefore, I had time to shop around there and have dinner with my friend, Harumi and her husband. The hotel we stayed in Shibuya was Fukudaya. It was run by some old folks. The hotel was very old and had a little smell. We had a Japanese room for three people and the rate was 12000 yen for three, no meal was included. It would take a little walk from the bus and subway stations about 10-15 min, but only 5 min if you take a bus. Given the smell and distance, I will not really recommend you this place. Nevertheless, I will not discourage you neither as it is very cheap and clean. As my trip really started from the third day, I will break down my trip from there:
4/28 Hotel Fukudaya in Shibuya
As my other friend, Frederic who would only arrive in Tokyo in the afternoon, my friend, Deborah, and I went to Ebisu. Nearby the station, there was a shopping district. The area reminded me of Rodeo Drive in LA, CA. There were many boutiques, small unique and stylish shops and some nice restaurants and cafes. It is a nice area to walk around in the afternoon and maybe have some coffee there. But, really it does not like Japan at all.
I went to pick up my friend, Frederic, at the airport in the afternoon. As we bought 7-Days JR Pass, I did not need to pay for the ride. As the transportation system can be very confusing for any first timer and Tokyo is crowded everywhere. It is not easy to find a good meeting point if you do not know the city at all. Therefore, if you and your friends go there at different time, it is suggested that you meet at the airport which will be the easiest spot. And if you got JR Pass, meeting at Narita Airport can give you more benefits. Maybe we would come back to this later.
After meeting my friend, Frederic, we reunited with Deborah in Tokyo station. We then went to Hamamatsu where we went to check out Tokyo Tower. It was about 5:30 where we arrived there. We passed by a store packed with people drinking beer and having BBQ. It smelled so good and we wanted to try the BBQ. There was no menu and we did not speak Japanese at all. We joined the crowd and try to order something. Nevertheless, we could not get any. It turned out, if we guessed correctly, we needed to order beer if we wanted to order any BBQ there. Since it was too early to drink, we gave up the idea and continue our walk to the tower.
Right in front of the tower, there was a shrine and park. Though it was dark, we still found it beautiful. It is recommended that you go there when visiting Tokyo tower. (Sorry that I don’t remember the name of the shrine). Tokyo Tower looked not spectacular at all from a far. Nevertheless, once you walk close to it, especially in the evening, it becomes very beautiful. The fee for going up there was pretty expensive, about 1500-2000 yen. As we had limited budget, we did not go up to the tower. If anyone thought that we should, let me know and maybe I’ll do it next time. In stead of going up there, we bought some French pancake at a small shop down by the tower. Maybe it was too cold or we were very hungry, the pancakes tasted like heaven. I had cinnamon apple pancake. It was very good. You should try it if you had the chance. My two friends had others but I don’t remember.
Leaving the tower, we tried to walk to Roppongi. It was quite far for us after the long day and the long walk to the tower. Unless you are good at walking, I suggest that you take subway from there. Roppongi is a place full with clubs and bars. Many black people worked there and tried to drag people into various bars and clubs. I really did not like that place. It made me feel filthy and uncomfortable. I am sure it can be fun if you know your way around there but I have to say it was not a place for me. Anyway, we ended up having some Osaka pan-fried cake (Okonomiyaki) in a small restaurant. The portion was small but the food was okay. We returned to the hotel after the dinner.
4/29 Hotel Fuji-Hakone Guest House in Hakone
After packing our stuff, we left the hotel in Shibuya in the morning and headed to Meji Shrine in Harajuku. We put our bags in Shibuya first before going there. There were lockers (500 yen for a big locker). It is recommended that you look for lockers wherever you go. Carrying your bags around is not a good idea in a crowded city like Tokyo.
Meji Shrine is a place to memorize Emperor Meji of Japan who brought Japan to modern industrial age. He has great respect from Japanese people even today. At the shrine, we saw a traditional wedding taking place and then watched a dance performance. The performance was pretty difficult to understand. It was dance with no plot but only exotic customs and movements and also music. Anyway, Meji Shrine is worth to visit if you like to see some real Japanese in Tokyo.
Outside of Meji Shrine was a total different place. We walked along Omotesando which is a famous street packed with famous brands, such as LV, Gucci, etc. As the weather was colder than we thought, we bought some clothes at GAP. We only bought on sale items and they were good deals. We walked our way to Aoyama Itchome and took metro and train to Tokyo station for our next stop- Hakone. In order to save time from having lunch, we bought lunch boxes at the station and had them on the train. Seriously, taking Shinkansen is very comfortable and very convenient in Japan. As it is quite expensive, it is strongly suggest that you do some research to see if it would be worthy for you to purchase JR Pass or JR East Pass.
From Tokyo Station, we took Tokaido & Sanyo Shinkansen to Odawara. The trip only took 40 minutes. From there, we took bus to our hotel which was at Togendai which was very close to the famous du Petit Prince Museum. I have to admit it was a bit weird to find such a museum in Japan and it was pretty much in a middle of no where.
Hakone Guest House was a Youth hostel style hotel with many foreign visitors. They had a out-door hot spring bath and an indoor one. The room we stay was big enough for 4 so it was very comfortable for 3 and the rate was about 5000 yen per person per night. The guest house is owned by a Japanese family but run by two lovely Japanese young ladies.
We were very well received by the two lovely ladies. As we arrived in Hakone in late afternoon, we decided to take hot spring bath first before heading out for dinner. Each guest can use outdoor hot spring bath for 30 minutes and guests are required to make reservations. The outdoor bath was nice but sometime you can find some dead bugs on the water. Guess that weather was too cold and they wanted to a piece of hot spring too. Taking outdoor hot bath is very refreshing and cozy. Hakone hot spring has very milky color so you can hide well your body under the water and take pictures of your taking hot spring bath!
Hakone Guest House dose not provide dinner but you can order breakfast at 800 yen per person. If you save some money, you can buy your breakfast at nearby Lawson convenient store. As for dinner, there are not many choices there. You have to walk 5-15 minutes to find restaurants. We tried a local Japanese restaurant there but the foods were just okay.
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