Day 3: Toyohashi-Hakone-Mt. Fuji-Lake Kawaguchi

We started off from Toyohashi by taking bullet train to Hamamatsu which only took about 14 minutes. It will be a 1 ½ hour journey by bus.

A little introduction about bullet train, it started in year 1964. The bullet in Japan can go up to 280-300km/h (at full speed) and it will only take about 2 hours 45 minutes to get from Osaka to Tokyo, which is about 800km.

However, we only took the train for one stop and that cost us 2,000 YEN.

After more bus ride, we arrive at the Hakone’s National Park – Lake Ashi. We then took a 30 minutes boat ride in Lake Ashi (the depth of the lake is 40m at the deepest point). The view around the lake was fantastic but I was chilled to the bone from the blowing wind.

After the boat ride, the tour went to the Owakudani Valley - Black Egg Valley. They called it the Black Egg Valley because they really do have black eggs there. The mountains at Owakudani Valley were once active volcanoes. Now, the valley have hot spring and sulfurous acid gas coming out from everywhere and sell black eggs there !

Mt. Fuji
Fuji-san stands at 3,776 m tall and last erupted in 1704.
The weather wasn’t fantastic when we were on our way to Fuji-san so I couldn’t see if from far away. The bus got us up to the 4th Station (2,020m above sea level) on Mt. Fuji and the view of the summit covered with snow was magnificent !

Great feeling holding snow & looking at the crater of Mt. Fuji for the first time in my life ! Simply superb !

Sleep over in a ryokan (guest house - budget hotel)
The tour agency managed to book the whole hotel just for our group and the hotel is next to Lake Kawaguchi. And in the hotel, they have onsen (hot spring) too !
This stay was probably the most culturally-satisfying throughout the whole trip. We sleep on tatami (woven straw mat) with the Japanese futon (mattress), bathe butt-naked at the onsen (too bad this one separates the Male & Female bath), yukata dinner party and sake drinking game with no rules set. Even their bathroom (in the room) is the traditional type, where you sit on a stool and bath with a small towel.

The correct way to dress in a yukata.

Put it on.

Hold the Right wing and fold it to your body.

Then hold the Left wing and fold it to your body covering the Right wing.

Tie the belt.

It is very important to make sure you fold it Right first followed by Left. The other way round is for the deceased and you don’t want to walk around in the hotel that way.

I think the temperature must have been around 4-5°C that night, the heat of sake wore off, it freezed the hell out. And I slept with the window open and the heater off. Smart.

L-R from top: Bullet train station in Toyohashi, nice flower outside the station in Hamamatsu, bell tower, green tea plantation along the expressway, udon lunch with tempura, a doll in a shop, Hakone's National Park, picturesque views of Lake Ashi.

More pictures of the boat ride from Hakone.

Leaving the Hakone Kojiri Terminal for 30 minutes boat ride.

Owakudani Valley. The black egg taste just like normal hard boiled egg but cost a bomb.

At the 4th station (2,020m above sea level) of Mt. Fuji. The view of the snow-covered summit was MAGNIFICENT!

Our room with tatami & futon. The view of Lake Kawaguchi.

Yukata-themed dinner. Fantastic food, fantastic girls...=)

Day 2: Osaka-Nara-Kyoto-Toyohashi

Day 2: Osaka-Nara-Kyoto-Toyohashi
First destination of the day was to Nara, the old capital of Japan. The journey took 1 ½ hours. In Nara, we visited the Nara Deer Park and Todaiji Temple. The temple is ranked as one of the biggest wooden structure in the world.

Before the Japanese pray in the temple, they will have to wash their hand and mouth to cleanse the bad things away. First, you have to wash the left hand and then followed by the right hand. Finally, scope some water into your mouth and gargle with the water. When worshipping at the shrine or temple, you have to bow twice, make a wish and clap twice and take another bow.

Then, we went to Kyoto (1 ½ hours from Nara) for lunch. Kyoto is famous for their tofu and that’s we had for lunch. The Japanese tofu set lunch with shabu-shabu was fantastic ! Gion, the geisha district is located in Kyoto as well, and there are about 1600 temples spread all over the city.

It started to drizzle and we were heading for a short stop at the Heian Shrine and after that to Kiyomizu Temple.

Kiyomizu Temple
The temple is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site and it’s located at the top of a small hill. The temple was built over a cliff. During spring, thousands and thousands of tourists will come for the full bloom sakura. Though during my visit, the sakura trees are left with naked branches, I can imagine how fantastically beautiful it will be when it’s carrying all the sakura. I hope to go back another time for the sakura.

It is also a belief that you will be blessed with good fortune and good health when you drink from the 3 waterfalls in the temple. Of course I went for it, and so happen that I was quite thirsty. I drank from all 3 waterfalls.

Todaiji Temple - one of the biggest wooden structure in the world is surrounded by the serene & picturesque Nara Deer Park.

Some of the pictures I took during the visit at Nara Deer Park & Todaiji Temple.

Kyoto tofu set lunch with shabu-shabu....the thin-sliced pork are cook in the boiling hot soup together with the white & soft tofu.

Fung sang sui hei - Kiyumizu Temple - UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Breathtaking sceneries, no wonder everyone fell in love with this place.

Japan trip 5th – 10th March 2006

Day 1: Osaka-Kobe-Osaka

We arrived at Kansai International Airport, Osaka and was then to Ramada Hotel where I’m going to spend my first night in.
A little about Osaka, it is the 2nd most important city in Japan because of its economic importance. And the people in Osaka are extremely proud of themselves. They have their own dialect of Japanese known as the Kansai dialect. Even when speaking to Japanese from other cities, they will remain using the Kansai dialect. For example, Japanese in Tokyo will say “arigatou” for thank you, but Japanese from Osaka will use “okini” instead.

I think Japanese are really hardworking people because even in a hotel, the toilet at the lobby has only 3 urinals and 3 cubicles.
They were at least 10 of us waiting in line to “bomb” Osaka.
How does toilet have anything to do with hardworking ? Then you must have not heard about the Chinese proverb that goes ~ “larn yan dor si liew” (lazy people shit more).

The first destination for the day is to Kobe and the journey took about 45-60 minutes by bus.
Kobe is famous for its sake and the infamous Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.

We first went to The Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum (Hakutsuru means White crane).
The 3 most important elements in making quality sake is THE WATER, THE RICE & THE TEMPERATURE.

The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake
It was the earthquake in 17th January 1995 (5.46 am) which recorded 7.3 on the Richter scale that took 6433 lives and many more injured. In the earthquake museum, they showed things that you probably expect them to show, but what really impressed me it that after all the disaster and suffering in Kobe, the Japanese has so much of spirits and discipline to restore the city back to normal in just a couple of years.

After the museum, the tour headed for Mt. Rokko. Took the cable car to the top and that’s where I saw REAL snow for the first time in my life !
On the way to Harbourland for our lunch scheduled at 2.30 pm, somehow the bus driver got lost and the journey which is supposed to be 40 minutes, took 2 hours and we only ate lunch at 4.30 pm. The buffet there was really good though.

After dinner, we went to Shinsaibashi (equivalent to Petaling Street) for shopping and then headed for dinner.
There wasn’t much food left for dinner because my bus arrived at the hotel at 9 pm and the buffet closes at 9.30 pm. They even served Kobe beef at the buffet and it taste damn good ! I can eat the whole cow if I have time.

Visit to The Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum for sake tasting.

At the earthquake museum, we were shown with some really high-tech stuff that simulates how an earthquake happens and reducing skyscrapers down to rubbles.

Snow...snow...snow...at the top of Mt. Rokko, a fantastic view of Kyoto city.