riku-in-japan
Riku in Japan
Follow for random photos and rants about my Journey in the Land of the Rising Sun!
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Day 18 Day of Return
After what was probably the worst night of sleep since I arrived in Japan, it was time to get up and go to the airport.
With only 3 hours of sleep, I was infinitely grumpy, angry with my bulky carry-on and... I directed it all to my husband. (Sorry!) I decided to repack my carry-on again, this time moving all the food to a seperate bag, so I was left with two somewhat bulky bags instead of one super bulky one... Which felt better.
Thankfully our trip to Narita Airport was a very straight one. Just get on the right metro, and it'll automatically turn into the Keise Sky Acces Line. Getting to the airport was no hassle at all, thankfully.
As announced the day before our flight would be leaving 45 minutes later than originally planned, but the arrival time should remain the same.
Suitcases were dropped off, customs inspections went pretty smoothly and... Then we were left with nearly 1.5 hour until boarding!
After going round the shops for a bit, we sat down at the gate and... waited. Then received a very helpfull announcement that sounded like our flight was delayed, because of a delay. But yeah, we already knew we were delayed, so who cares. Time of departure was still scheduled for 12.15 according to the screens.
Time passed and passed. Both me and my husband were called to the counter, because we both forgot to remove a power bank from our suitcases. (I'm pretty sure it was in there on the flight to Japan as well and it didn't get flagged then, but... Well...) Another announcement spoke off a delay of our flight, due to a traffic jam, but... The English was a bit broken, so I didn't really get it. Figured it must be really crowded in the airspace again, as it was on our day of departure.
Departure time was still scheduled for 12.15. But aven at 11.45, boarding had yet to start. Stranger even, the ground staff didn't seem to make any preparations for boarding either... It was only then that I noticed that, according to the screens, boarding would start at 12.20. Excuse me!? Boarding starts after departure!? What's going on. No updates were given, at all. Eventually a google search showed the latest update put our departure at 12.45,but none of that showed on the screens at the gate.
In the end, it turned out that the whole flight crew had gotten stuck in a 2 hour traffic jam on their way to the airport. So, in the end we left about 2 hours later than originally planned! And accordingly arrived a bit later too.
This probably was the first flight ever that did not return the usual route over land, but instead headed for Alaska, North pole and Greenland. Meaning we mostly flew above water.
It also surprised me how set they were on simulating a night, while it was very much a day flight on every sense. The immediately dimmed all lights after serving our very late lunch. Turned them briefly on for a midnight pasta meal. Then dimmed all lights again until about an hour before arrival. It completely threw me off! I did expect a couple hours of darkness for a quick nap, but not a whole flight! We left around 13.15 and we would arrive around 18.30. I get that you'd want to allow for some sleep, but... In essence it's just a really long day, no need to simulate a full night!!
I suppose this decision may have been the result of our unusual flight route, which would pretty much whip us through a night, instead of the usual extra long day with constant daylight, but... I'm pretty sure they could have turned the light on a bit sooner! By the time we arrived out was already completely dark outside...
Anyway, the flight went fine, up until maybe the last hour and a half, when nausea took over and... No eating would safe my life. Also, my mouth started drying up like no tomorrow and drinking water only seemed to make it worse. So, my flight pretty much ended a disaster, espacially once we started descending and my mouth was to dry to properly swallow and I couldn't keep up with the changing air pressure. Resulting in some painful ears. (Reminder, next time, bring chewing gum!)
Upon arrival, only one of the customs gates was open, and... A whole airplane needed to pas through. So, the line went painfully slow. They eventually opened up a second one, but... I was so exhausted by that point....I probably shouldn't have stuck to my plan to stay awake for the full flight. It would have worked had we left on the originally scheduled time, or if I had had a proper night of sleep beforehand, but...
My nausea subsided though, so that was nice. Until it came back in full force as my husband's father drove us home. I was suddenly so sick! Arriving home, I couldn't do anything but cry, and immediately went to bed. Had to get out to vomit. Except my whole stomach was apparently empty, so nothing came out. (When did I stop eating on that flight! I can't have been that long, right? Guess I messed up again...)
This vomit-no vomit situation repeated itself twice over the night. And I woke up the next morning still feeling nauseas. And terribly jet lagged.
I really need to learn to properly eat and sleep on my flights...
And thus ended my 2023 trip to Japan.
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Day 17 Nakano / Ikebukuro
Last day in Japan. POURING RAIN! Thankfully I had taken notice of this development in advance, so I had decided to leave shopping at Nakano for last. Who doesn't like a shopping mall with a roof on a rainy day?
Of anything Nakano seemed even more desolate than it was four years ago, but it seems at least the mandarake still survives. And to my joy I did find the manga volumes I was still looking for! With that done, we browsed around a bit more, bought too much candy... And tried to arrange to have dinner with my older brother and his family, but... Plans kept changing and... Nothing seemed to work out.
Some time after noon, the rain had stopped. Much sooner than expected. Originally I had planned to go to Ikebukuro, since Sunshine City is a nice and dry mall too, but since the weather had cleared, this wasn't entirely necessary anymore. Though in the end we still went.
So many adorable pokemon statues! Sunshine city clearly changed a bit since I last came there, but for the better.
There was also some kind of anime/figure event space that opened up today (probably), so we checked that out. Then circled around the gacha town, looking for fun.
In the middle of this we realized that forcing to have dinner with my brother wouldn't make anyone happy, so we decided to cancel the family dinner plans. A bit unfortunate. We had hoped to meet up one more time before returning home again.
In the end we ended up at Sukiya's again. My husband had really wanted to eat shabushabu, but... I didn't really feel like going there just with the two of us, so... I hoped the nabe would at least scratch that itch a little for him... (It didn't, though he did like the meal)
After dinner it was time to return to the hotel and pack the last bits. Unfortunately I had to conclude I was completely out of weight space, so even if I made more space space in my suitcase it wouldn't solve the huge amount of random stuff I now had to bring along in my carry-on.
I don't mind stuff in my carry-on, but I do hate lugging multiple bags around to the airport. Unfortunately I had no choice. Even after stuffing some things in my husband's suitcase, I was still left with a rather bulky bag.... Mostly filled with food to eat on the airplane. If I wanted to avoid another case nausea, I was going to need more food than the flight company offers.
(I'm kinda sad the unlimited snacks stand in the back of the plane has disappeared, probably a result of covid? Or because it's deemed too unhealthy? Most of the stuff was sugary...)
After repacking my carry-on multiple times in hopes of decreasing it's size, I eventually gave up to go to bed. Though not before taking a few more photos of the view...
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Day 16 Akihabara
And we are back to shopping. Friday would be super rainy, so I decided to leave Nakano for last and use my dry Thursday for a shopping spree in Akihabara.
Google very kindly told us that walking to Akihabara was in fact the quickest way to get there. (Sometimes it seems to forget that public transport does in fact exist in Japan...) So, we walked... About 30 minutes.
And went shopping... Surprisingly, I did actually buy a bunch of stuff! A bunch of Spy Family figures. I do love the series. And I love how many reasonably priced figures are out there. Fine, they are cheap! Dirt cheap! I got an especially good deal in my Anya with Penguin figure. In about every store the price ranged from 3000-4000 yen. But I managed to grab one for less than 2000 yen! That figure is absolutely adorable!
The mandarake was no help in finding the manga volumes I was still looking for, so... NAKANO, PLEASE!
They also had this super cute Saiyuki thing going on, but my husband didn't seem interested, so I eventually gave up on trying to get him inside... I do kinda regret that now.
What I also regret is... Giving in to my husband's wish to eat yakiniku that evening. He had this amazing restaurant, he said, where he ate lunch many times, he said... Unfortunately the dinner menu was extremely disappointing! Very little (affordable) choice. In the end, we ordered a plate with three kinds of unspecified meat (chef's choice of the day, I suppose) and while all meats were probably really good quality, they... Just remained really chewy. Didn't matter if you grilled 'em for a minute or for ten, it was nigh impossible to actually chew 'em up. Took ages before you were able swallow a piece. It was really a shame, because the taste was there. The meat was beautifully marinated. I just didn't enjoy the actual eating.
We both left the place rather disappointed. Never going back there for dinner again. I may be persuaded to try the lunch menu sometime. Some other day. Some other year.
And thus concluded the day.
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Day 15 Kamakura
By the time I reached Kamakura I was getting a bit tired, but since I was there, I decided to drop my the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu temple anyway.
As always it was very crowded.
But thankfully the inner part was quite peaceful... Wait, inner part!? Somehow I ended up in a place I did not remember ever seeing before. (Not allowed to take photos.) There was even a museum entrance. Since I was too exhausted from my trip, I didn't feel like going inside, but... I may want to remember it for another time. Whenever that may be.
Exhaustion started taking over, so I decided to make my way over to the station and catch a train back to Tokyo.
Then I finally made good on my promise to try Sukiya's nabe set. It was super delicious! Although I still don't really get what to do with that raw egg. Mixing some off it through my rice works, but... I don't see the appeal of dipping my meat and veggies in raw egg...
My husband didn't join me for dinner, because he'd eaten a big and late lunch and wasn't hungry yet. Oh well...
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Day 15 Asahina-Kiridooshi
Going down was a bit of a challenge, because the trail I meant to take ended up a bit too overgrown, so I had to backtrack and use a different one to get to the place I wanted to be. (which then ended up being the trail I had wanted to take from the beginning... Ugh... My gpx mapping skills suck) This section was probably the roughest part of the whole day, not that many people come by here it seems. Even the trail I could follow was a bit more overgrown than I would like.
After walking along the car roads for a bit, I finally made it to the entrance of the Asahina-Kiridooshi. I'm still not sure if this was the same entrance I took last time. It had the same vibe, but somehow looked different.
That said, this place still look really amazing. Almost magical. It wasn't as quiet as I remember it to be, but... It still felt plenty like the edge of civilization.
At the other end of the trail, I started running into other people. I suppose it's far more popular to enter it from the other side, have a peak, and turn around again. Even ran into some woman asking me for directions. (The signs are pretty clear though) I suppose the walk to the path was a bit longer than they expected...
From there I just followed the main road back to Kamakura. For a moment I considered going up again to the Tenen Hiking trail, but ultimately decided against it.
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Day 15 Rokkoku-touge
Orginally we considered going to Nikko today, but the cheapest route would take us 3 hours one way at least, and... We were kind of exhausted. So spending 6 hours on the train just didn't feel like a great plan anymore. Instead I decided to go for my Kamakura hike today.
Queue another failure to use public transport... I was at the right line, the right platform, earlier than needed and... After waiting roughly 15 minutes... Realized the train I wanted, did not exist. I had set the date wrong in my planner... Ugh! Worst thing was, I probably watched the correct train leave, but did not realize it. In the end I had to wait another 15 minutes before the next connection that would get me to Kanazawa-Bunko station.
Due to this hickup, I arrived nearly an hour later at my destination than planned. But well... Of we go! Rokkoku-touge trail, here I come!
I had very carefully created a gpx file I could use to navigate... And then got totally confused when the entrance to the trail on my digital map was not the entrance I had meant to use. Ahaha...
It did leave me to a pretty little temple though...
And a very rough, barely ever used trail! With lots of spiderwebs. At some point I started waving a branch in front of my face, because I was getting of walking into every web ever made. Somehow those things were totally invisible!
After a while, I thankfully returned to the familiar, and well maintained trail I had meant to use right from the start.
At some point I took a little detour that took me around to a little lake and another pretty shrine.
Until I eventually arrived at Kanazawa Zoo. I guess what I really like about this trail (or rather, this section of the trail), is how easy it is. You have to go up at first, but from there it's a really easy walk. Some ups and downs, but nothing major, nothing too intense. It just makes for a really pretty walk.
At Kanazawa Zoo I did get confused for a moment, because the signs to Kamakura Tenen seemed to have disappeared for a bit, but with the help of my digital map, I found my way to the staircase that would lead me to the next section of the trail.
The part between the zoo and Kamakura Tenen trail is a lot rougher. It's still a rather easy walk, but... the trail is just... rougher. Whereas the first part is of the Rokkoku-touge trail is suitable for anyone who can walk, the second section just isn't... I guess.
Still, it was a nice walk! Just before the Rokkoku-touge trail turns into the Tenen trail, I turned to descend the mountain ridge and eventually find my way to the Asahina-kiridooshi trail.
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Day 14 Shibuya
Another day of shopping... Another day of... Making mistakes using public transport. Nah, it wasn't that bad this time... Shibuya is just a mess! You would expect that "scramble square" and "Hachiko" would lead you to roughly the same place, right? Well, apparently follwing signs to Hachiko gives you the long tour through Shibuya station...
The shopping itself was pretty much the same as yesterday, but this time with my husband trailing along.
Again, I couldn't really find what I was looking for. That is, a few manga volumes of some very specific series... which I own in English for the most part. Some English volumes are very hard to come by though, so I figured I might just buy their Japanese counterparts to fill in the gaps in the meantime. But although I had high hopes for the mandarake in Shibuya, it didn't have everything I was looking for. Unfortunately. (Nakano! You're now my last hope!) I did end up buying pretty much all Ascendance of Bookworm manga volumes they had available however...
After lunch we made our way to the Nintendo store, Pokemon Centre and... Whatever other stores are on that same floor.
It was so busy! You could hardly walk in the Nintendo store without bumping into other people. And the line for the cashier of the Pokemon Centre was so long I just didn't feel like buying anything at all! Even though they had some cute things.
As the sun started setting, I made my way back to the hotel, determined to eat Sukiya's nabe set today, while my husband went to Meguro to eat sushi. My decision to drop my purchases in our room first ultimately backfired. Once I sat down in the room, I just didn't feel like getting up again and going out, so... My dinner consisted of assorted "bread" things. I keep buying more than I need, so I created a bit of a pile... Better eat 'em before they go bad.
I will eat the nabe... One day! For sure!
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Day 13 Ikebukuro
This morning I very clearly noticed that exhaustion was catching up with me. My husband had left fairly early to grab some stuff he left at my brother's place, while I was left to snooze in bed. In the end it was nearly noon before I actually left the hotel, with the overwhelming feeling that, "I'm not feeling it today, I wanna go back to bed."
This truth of thia mood became extremely clear when it took me a few minutes too long to realize I could not find the train I wanted to take, because I was lurking around at the Asakusa Line platforms, rather than the Oedo Line platforms. To make it worse, I could not even reach the Oedo Line from my current location. Not without checking out of the station first!! (This is probably the first time I encountered a station that services two lines, but they are not connected in any way.) So, I had to explain to the staff member at the gates I messed up, and he kindly let me out and even gave me a (preprinted) tiny map with directions to the right entrance. Guess this thing happens more often...
On my way to Ikebukuro I was! Just to mess up again... I had to transfer and very diligently followed the signs to the Marunouchi Line. I took notice it said I had to turn right and immediately assumed this meant: turn right after the gates. Since I checked out after leaving the Oedo Line, it made sense to me that I needed to check in again, but... Nope, I should have turned before the gates! I was apparently still in a state of being checked-in, as far as the metro system was concerned. So... I suddenly found myself very much outside the station and had to shamefully turn around and check in again... Wasted about 60 yen there!
Eventually I did make it to Ikebukuro to do some shopping and it was nice to just browse around without my husband trailing behind me.
This trip also made me realize how our of touch I am with the recently popular series. I barely recognized anything in the animate (or other stores for that matter)! It did make my trip a pretty cheap one as a result! In the end I only bought a couple pokemon figures and some manga.
Around 5PM-ish I called it a day and returned to the hotel, grabbed some take out from the McD. (Husband was out eating with a friend.) Although I was very tempted to visit the Sukiya next door, to try the special nabe meal set they were advertising. Another time! I kinda felt like eating fastfood. And there still were some burgers I wanted to try. I wonder why it feels like the Japanese burger selection at McD is so much more suited to my tastes... And they are so cheap! 220 yen for a burger!? (Fine, they are a bit smaller than tje average burger here in the Netherlands... But still!)
Rest of the evening was spend messing around on my phone.
I didn't take any photos today, so... Please enjoy some photos I took the day before of the view from our hotel room!
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Day 12 Enryakuji
Finally, reached the top of the mountain and the temple!! Welcome to Enryakuji.
The temple grounds were a lot bigger than I initially expected, meaning I didn't really have time to give everything a proper look before having to go down again. I mostly regret not realizing there was some kind of collaboration going on with Violet Evergarden at the Garden museum until the moment I sat down in the cable car. Would have loved to see what that was about.
So, all I had a look at was the main area and one of the side areas. On my own though. When I arrived at the top, my husband announced he was going back down again. Apparently the cable car had done his fear of heights no good and the idea he had to ride it again stressed him out so much he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.
So, I started exploring by myself.
It was a bit unfortunate that the main building of the whole place was being renovated and barely visible to the eye. Seems it is going to take a few more years before they are done. But I suppose everything else was really pretty. Some parts were newer looking than others.
The oldest were probably located in one of the side parts I decided to visit, which was a roughly ten minutes walk away from the main area. Even though my husband was already asking me to hurry up and catch a cable car, since he was getting antsy about reaching Tokyo too late. (Any time before midnight is still on time! It's only 4PM! Let me explore!)
After a quick look around, and with my husband getting impatient, I ended up rushing back to catch the cable car that would leave half past four. In the end it was a bit further away than I initially expected, but I did make it in time and I got to sit down for the trip.
The ride was nice, apparently it's the longest cable car ride in Japan? But I suppose I do prefer walking up and down a mountain by myself. This time, that was unfortunately impossible.
By the time I reached the bottom, my husband was already at the JR station, telling me I had exactly 18 minutes to make it to the station, or we'd have to wait for the next train. Now guess how long it takes to walk to that station according to google? You guessed it, 18 minutes.
So, walking on full speed, I made it to the station with just 2 minutes to spare!
In Kyoto we grabbed some food at the convenience store, released our suitcases from the locker and sat down in a Shinkansen to Tokyo before eating out very lavish dinner consisting of nikuman and pizzaman.
And thus concluded my birthday...
Ah, no... In Tokyo we still had to find our hotel and my husband very carefully guided us to the wrong one. Like, in what world would a hotel chain need two hotels almost right next to each other? And give them almost exactly the same name? Who would think of that!?
Anyway, paying for a room with a view was definitely worth it! (Photos will follow later, I already reached my 10 photo allowance for this post...)
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Day 12 Omi Shrine
The day started early, because we had to leave the apartment at 10:00. In the end, we probably left just after nine, making our way to Kyoto to drop our luggage, before heading over to Otsu (Lake Biwa).
Last Monday, we found loads of coin lockers available at Kyoto station, so what could go wrong?... holy cow, how can all those coin lockers be filled this early in the morning! We walked all around the station, but could not find a single available locker to store our suitcases.
In the end, we decided to just drag our suitcases to Otsu station and pray to find an empty locker there. Then, as our train slid out of Kyoto station, we noticed an abundance of empty coin lockers on platform zero! Crap!!
To our dismay, Otsu had no coin lockers available. The very few it had were already taken, so... We boarded a train back to Kyoto station. (Haha... Eh...) There we dropped our luggage in one of the empty lockers on platform zero and went on our way again. I suppose the ones on the platform are so empty, since they really are only useful to those who will leave via Kyoto station again on the same day (and before 20:00).
All in all we lost quite a bit of time with this little dance. So, adjustments to the plans had been made. My leisure walk by the lakeside was cut, Miidera crossed of the list and eventually I redirected our route to Otsukyo station, from where we walked toward Omi Shrine.
It was quite pretty, but overrun by parents and children for their shichigosan ceremonies, so... It felt a bit odd to be looking around. As a result our visit was rather brief.
From there we walked over to the nearest station, Minami-Shiga. And grabbed the train to Sakamoto-Hieizanguchi.
Despite the delay in my plans , I very stubbornly held onto my plans to actually climb the mountain, up to Enryakuji, instead of riding the cable car (as my husband would.)
Along the way I certainly questioned myself a few times why the plan had been to climb the mountain via the Honzaka trail, rather than descending. Which would have arguably been easier... Just to remind myself I chose this order, because otherwise I might have ended up on a dark trail due to sunset coming earlier than expected.
Anyway, the trail was pretty, but really pushed me to my limits again. Or maybe I'm just trying to go to quickly and that's what's breaking me up. Official maps say the trail should take roughly 2 hours, but I reached the top after a single hour... I just feel that if I went any slower, I wouldn't be making any progress... Of the weather had been nicer, I might have taken a few more breaks though... It is a pretty rough trail though.
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Day 11 Katsuo-ji
After a long, long hike... I reached Katsuo-ji and... I was not disappointed!
DARUMA EVERYWHERE!!
Apparently you can just leave them anywhere you want, as long as it's not a dangerous location. And once a year they are all gathered and burned in some kind of ritual. I'm not entirely sure what the significance is, but... All the daruma make for a pretty sight.
Even without the daruma, Katsuo-ji is quite a beautiful temple. And one of 33 places you should pray at if you want to avoid going to hell, I believe. (Or am I mixing things up now?)
After soaking it all in for roughly an hour, I decided it was time to head back. As I was contemplating whether to take the bus to Senrichuo and return from there, or walk back to Minoo Waterfall and return from there, the bus just left. Since it would take a while for the next one to come, I decided to walk.
I meant to follow the asphalt road back this time, but the traffic situation was too confusing and I didn't just want to barge ahead across the road, so back onto the bear-infested nature trail I went. On this side the trail was not closed off, but did have a warning a bear had been sighted in July this year!
Exiting trail 5 I followed the asphalt road back to Minoo Waterfall, from where I returned to Minoo station.
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Day 11 Minoo Waterfall
I typed a whole report on this day, then my internet crashed (for no particular reason) and everything disappeared into nothingness. So, gotta start all over again...
Um... So... Today started with a short walk (3km) to Minoo Waterfall. The road itself went gradually uphill, but even when walking at a snail's pace, it was enough to leave my husband completely out of breath. He blamed it on the sore throat he's had for a few days now (it affected his lungs too, he claims), but I suspect it has more to do with the complete lack of any exercise for years.
The road to the temple runs past an insect museum and some temples, but to shorten the suffering of my husband I decided not to linger and just walk on. The last thing he wanted right now was trailing after me as I bounced from place to place.
Pretty waterfall!
After a short rest at the foot of the waterfall, my husband decided to return to Osaka city, I would walk onward to Katsuo-ji.
First hickup in my plans happened roughly 10 minutes into my walk, when the entrance to the trail I wanted to take was closed off. And the path itself seemed to have been destroyed by a landslide. For a moment I worried the whole nature trails did not exist anymore, but thankfully I found a (new) entrance just a short walk up ahead.
...and I also found a notice that they had, for environmental reasons, decided to return the closed off part of the trail to the monkeys. Whether they made this decision before or after it was destroyed by the landslide remains a mystery.
The entrance looked a bit forlorn, but nothing indicated I wasn't allowed to start climbing the stairs, so... on I went!
The first bit of nature trail 2 was a bit rough, with some pretty steep drops to the side, but soon it turned more into a forest walk. Albeit uphill, with enough stairs to leave me completely out of breath. Eventually the trail levelled out, and continued with some gradual ups and dows. Roughly 25 minutes later, I reached the end, and continued onto nature trail 3.
I did make a little detour to Minoo dam, but... It wasn't much of a dam. That is, I could not find the water... But I suppose it was a pretty sight?
From there the trail descended to the Minoo visitor center. Including detour, trail 3 took roughly 20 minutes.
Upon entering nature trail 4, it was time to start climbing again, then continued mostly level until it descended back to the road en the entrance to nature trail 5. All in all, taking me about 35 minutes.
And the I found a rope... Closing nature trail 5 off! Hold on, what!? A closer look at the faded pieces of paper revealed this decision likely had to do with the bear that had been spotted over a year ago! So, well... The trail itself didn't look like it had been abandoned for over a year, so I decided to simply carry on. Albeit with a bit more caution. Though I did not hear anything but my own footsteps, and saw nothing that resembled animal activity. About 20 minutes later, I finally reached Katsuo-ji!
All in all, it took roughly 1.5h to walk for Minoo waterfall to Katsuo-ji. Pretty much as planned. Trails were thankfully pretty well maintained, so that was nice!
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Day 10 Hiroshima / Miyajima
Roughly and hour later I reached Hiroshima and, to my surprise, already met up with my husband. I was pretty sure there would have been a more direct route from the museum to Miyajimaguchi, but... Apparently he found some JR bus he could ride at no cost with his rail pass, so decided to head back to Hiroshima station first. (Thus shortening the time he could spend at the museum...?)
On to Miyajima we went! Surprise, if you use a JR Rail Pass, there is a 100 yen visitor tax to be paid in advance. Um, what? Guess it's usually included in the ferry ticket, except we did not have to buy one. Oh well,...
We arrived around 3 o'clock. Just before the Torii gate was completely swallowed by water, but long before it would reach Itsukushima Shrine.
We had a rather quick look around the shrine. I remember spending quite some time here last time, but I guess my husband really just didn't have the patience for that as he kept pushing on. I also felt like some parts I was able to see in 2017 were closed off today.
Anyway, as soon as we exited the temple my husband was like "All right, let's head back to the ferry." Um, guy, it's been maybe 30 minutes since we arrived. I intended to spend at least 3 hours on this island. I'm already giving up on hiking to the top of the mountain, because I likely won't make it back before dark, but there is no way I'm getting back on the ferry again right away!
So, I dragged him along to the Momijitani park!
With every step he started complaining more... And more... Until I just told him to go back to the shopping street if he wanted to.
So, by myself I walked on. Enjoyed the scenery and made it to the start of the trail to the top. At which point I turned around an followed a different route through the park to go back.
At some point I received a text from my husband saying, "I expect you'll be back for the ferry that leaves at 16:40." At that point that seemed possible, but I wasn't entirely sure. So, I gave no confirmation.
Then, by the time I reached the shopping street I realized I was running out of time and started hurrying a bit more, because, as annoyed as I was with my husband for (pretty much) giving a time limit, I didn't want to just throw it to the wind, and then I got a, "I'm already in line to board the ferry, can't see you yet. Will you make it?" text message.(This was 6 minutes before departure.) So, my idiot husband had decided to pretty much board the ferry before even checking if I would make it!! Honestly, it kinda annoyed me. So, I truly had to rush onward to make it just in time for departure. Really, I wouldn't have minded a bit more time! I was enjoying myself!
From there my mood went downhill, and we had a fight over what to eat at Hiroshima station. Eventually I told him to just get sushi if that was what he wanted and stamped off to find a convenience store... but ended up in the bookstore right next to it and browsed the shelves for a while before eventually getting some (Hiroshima-style) okinomiyaki at the konbini.
Just as I was about to start eating, my husband send a message announcing he was ready to go. (Already!?) So, I decided I would just eat on the train in that case...
I was really happy to be back at the room and go to bed after that.
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Day 10 Himeji
Since the weather for Osaka and Kyoto was mostly rain today, we swapped our plans around and headed for Hiroshima, where hopefully, the rain would not be as bad. (Forecasts said it would be a bit better, although still rainy)
After spending days traveling together, we split up this morning to go our own ways. My husband would go straight to Hiroshima to visit the Peace Memorial Museum, while I would make a stop at Himeji Castle. We'd reconvene later on the day to visit Miyajima.
When we left it was still raining, but by the time I reached Himeji, the rain had mostly stopped. So, I could happily go around viewing without worrying my camera would get wet.
Still, I somehow just ended up with loads of photos of the castle from various angles.
Originally I thought two hours would be enough to view the castle, and even at the entrance it said you need roughly 1.5 hours to see everything, but... I managed to spend nearly and hour in an area that should have taken me half an hour. (Haha, oops?)
So, I rather quickly realized I wasn't going to adhere to the original schedule and informed my husband I would be an hour late. Then toured around the main keep at my leisure. Or well, it was rather crowded inside. Maybe I should've visited the main keep before going to the (less popular) side buildings. When I arrived the place was actually pretty empty.
Eventually I was so slow, that I had to hurry back to the station to catch the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Of course, I still took a momemt to photograps these lovely drain covers... Also, it started raining again...
I just caught the train and when I informed my husband of this, he seemed rather disappointed... Since he wasn't quite ready yet to leave the museum it seems. (Even though he was the one who said he needed only 2 hours...)
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Day 9 Osaka
Since we returned somewhat earlier than planned, we did have some time to recharge at our room before going out for dinner at Cocoichi(banya). Still my favorite curry restaurant.
After that, we walked by Tsutenkaku Tower and the Shin-sekai area.
I was a bit disappointed to see how much it had changed since the last time I visited. (In 2017, I think?) I remembered it as this really obnoxiously lighted area, with loads of (takoyaki) restaurants that seemed to have completely incomprehensible menus.
Today it seemed to be a reasonably well developed tourist destination. Somewhat proper restaurants, loads of arcades... All in all, it seemed too clean. (Compared to what it was.) I really missed the "loud and in your face" vibe of the area. But, I suppose it just wasn't working?
We also dropped by the Mega Donki, but... It's mega-ness actually made it feel rather messy. Like, that place is messy to begin with, but since everything was on a single floor, it really just turned into a maze and finding anything was nearly impossible. I rather have multi-floor Donki's. Those give some system to the madness.
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Day 9 Nara (2)
So, Todai-ji. Gigantic buddha...
It's hard to convey it's size in a photo, but yes, it was huge. The temple and the grounds around it are really pretty. Not sure what else to say about it.
From there we fed a few more deer, then headed to Kasuga Taisha. I think my husband was actually starting to get a bit tired of being dragged from place to place at this point. (Oops?) Not my fault he did not prepare himself and failed to bring himself some sort of lunch! (Is it?) I assumed he realized we'd be away from the restaurants while in Nara park... (and he didn't want udon, the one proper food we could get.)
So, with a hungry husband in tow, we visited Kasuga Taisha. So pretty! So many lantarns. It's too bad they clearly aren't meant to light up. Looked inside, completely empty. Made for candles it seems. But they did have this one dark room to show people what it would look like to have the lantarns lit up.
Originally I had planned to go to Wakasuyama from here, but my feet were already hurting and climbing a mountain did not seem a good idea. So, instead we headed back to the station. Dropped by the McD for some lunch... I mean, we needed something quick and my husband doesn't seem much of a fan of simple Japanese dishes.
Then we had some fun at the arcade and gacha town near the station... for some reason they thought it was a good idea to play "We wish you a merry christmas" on repeat. And their crane games are really righed, like every places. Perfectly grabbed toys suddenly dropping to the floor... It's really no fun anymore.
After a bit we headed back to the station and returned to Osaka.
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Day 9 Nara (1)
I hadn't been to Nara since I visited the place somewhat on a whim in 2014. And didn't really see anything but Nara park. I don't think the place changed much. It was pretty much as a remembered it, I think.
First stop of the day, Kofuku-ji. Well, it was more a passing through and taking in some sights on the way to the first planned stop of the day, Yoshiki-en.
A not too big, Japanese garden. And free entry. Some of the leaves had started chancing color, making it super pretty. Unfortunately, the time of the year meant the flower garden was rather bare. But well... We came also across this really nice poster at the toilet building. Attack on Titan explains "cough etiquette". A remnant of the pandemic. The paper next to it quite literally addressed people who came from Wuhan (and pretty much asked them to stay away/inside.)
From there we walked on through Nara park to Todai-ji... and fed some senbei to the deer.
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