Stop 27 - Kawaguchi-ko, Mt. Fuji

Our next stop...
Was Mt. Fuji, or actually the town in the surrounding region, Kawaguchi-ko. The mountain itself is closed for any hikes until the summer season, but we thought the town in the Fuji Five Lakes area, at the base of the snow-capped volcano, would still be worth a stop.
We made it despite a bit of a setback before departure, as in our bleary-eyed states after all the travelling to Tokyo, and not having any sort of plan for Japan while apart, we managed to book our bus for the day after we were due to leave Tokyo. Thankfully we were able to cancel for a full refund, and book a bus for two hours later that day. Crisis averted.

We arrived at the bus station of the small town, and made our way to Kagelow Mt. Fuji Hostel. That evening we braved the cold and stood outside Tetsuyaki, where a sizeable queue had formed. It was worth the wait, as we sat down in the tiny ~12-seater restaurant and enjoyed some delicious teriyaki chicken.

An evening back in the hostel then with a whiskey and dessert, to get a few bookings sorted and ensure no more bus mishaps for the rest of our stay.

We only had one full day here, so to make the most of it, we decided to rent bikes from our hostel and go for a cycle around the lake. The scenery wasn't half bad:

About halfway through our cycle, we stumbled across this little coffee van, Biding Time Cafe - powered by generator, out on the far end of the lake, and decided to pull over and take a minute to reflect on what on Earth we were doing here.

After our break by the lake (heh), we set off to finish the circuit and get back to the town centre.

And got ourselves some well earned beers:

After another top notch dinner at a tempura restaurant, we grabbed our things from the hostel and got ready for our first night bus in Japan - we'd a 10 hour bus to prepare ourselves for.

The sunset matched the rest of the scenery in being pretty spectacular, and the sight was a nice way to close out what was a short but sweet stay at Fuji-san. Hopefully this night bus isn't too uncomfortable, though we'll see tomorrow morning when we arrive at our next stop!

Big love,

Dani & Stu.

Currently listening to:

Country 4 & Stop 26 - Tokyo, Japan

Finally we're reunited...
And no better place for us to meet up than Tokyo. We were both dying to go here for years, so decided despite our pretty tight budget we'd have to spend some time here - a week is what we went with.

We both immediately noticed how nice/polite the people are from our separate journeys to the hostel since landing - Dani even being walked to the hostel and given a bag of chocolates by an old local woman. After checking in at Anne Hostel Yokozuna, we found a nearby restaurant and got our hands on some local cuisine - gyozas (Jesus Christ, the gyozas), fried tofu, and ramen:

Absolutely amazing food, so we were off to a good start. There's so many things you can do in Tokyo though that we felt a bit overwhelmed the next day - what to do or where to start. We stayed a week and only scratched the surface. We had initially planned to visit in April/May, but after some changing around of our travel plan we managed to time our arrival for peak cherry blossom season (Sakura), so decided we'd head off to some of the parks we were recommended in Tokyo to get a good view.

Ueno Park was first up, which had a bit more of a traditional vibe - shrines/temples, and we stumbled across a wedding procession in the midst of it all:

But after a quick wander through, we decided to head to nearby Yoyogi park, which we had been told previously was a place to observe parties of locals having food/drinks under the blossoms. We weren't disappointed, and if anything, it was much more...manic than we expected. We were there on a Saturday, and the place was absolutely mobbed. It was like being at a festival - hundreds of people all gathered around at picnics, drinking, music and food. Oh, and dogs:

We joined in with a few cans bought at a nearby 7/11, before finishing up for the evening, and deciding to carry on with our adventure to the nearby area of Shibuya, home of the Shibuya Crossing.

We then wandered the surrounding area and came across a Torikizoku, a chain of Japanese izakaya we were again recommended. Everything on the menu is 298jpy (€2.40), and we were full from 2 small plates and a (large) drink each. Tokyo can be very expensive, so this was an absolute bargain.

We hadn't ventured yet to Harajuku, and given the crowds at Takeshita-dori, we could see why we'd put it off to this point. But the following day we braved the human traffic jam, and made our way down to get to one of the famous animal cafes we decided we'd check out later:

A quick coffee in Deus Ex Machina,

And we made our way back to the Shiba cafe in Harajuku as we'd waited long enough for our time slot. It was €6 each for half an hour to chill with these cute little bastards, and good craic, though they do spend most of the time fighting with each other:

It was a much better experience than our first themed cafe, a Maid cafe - where the girls working dress up as anime-style maids, assume a cutesy character, and play in to the character throughout your "experience" - the one we went to had one other person in it, and cost €5 each as a "seating charge" (have to watch out for them in Japan), as well as being very overpriced on the menu. Given that neither of us had a real interest in it, we chickened out and left as quickly as we'd gone in.

Then, finally off to Ichiran Ramen, which Stu had previously mentioned in the Hong Kong post. It seems to be a bit of a chain across Japan, and we can see why, as the ramen is absolutely amazing (and about €7.50 for a bowl, so again a bit of a bargain)

We had a few chilled days in Tokyo, as all that travelling just to get here caught up on us. We did check out a few of the other must sees, the Shinjuku area and Golden Gai, but it was raining/cold when we were there and not much of a buzz in the small izakaya bars.

Our highlight came on our 2nd last day, where we got the chance to do something we had planned for before the start of the trip: Mario-kart/go-karting around the streets of the city. To do this you need your International Driving Permit, which we both got before leaving...however one was left behind in Dublin. Thankfully Stuart's parents were able to get it sent over to the hostel in Tokyo (thanks mum and dad!), so we both set off for Tokyo Bay, where we'd be driving for 2-2.5 hours over the Rainbow Bridge and through the city, dressed as various (non-Nintendo affiliated, they don't want to get sued) characters - we made the obvious choice of Elmo and the Cookie Monster - in go-karts that went up to 75km/h. It was absolute madness:

We most definitely recommend it if you get the chance, a real highlight.

We went back to Shinjuku that evening to get to a recommended burger place, only to find out it was closed. Thankfully there was a queue outside a small katsu curry place, so we decided to join luckily just before closing. It was, as everything is here, outrageously good:

And heading to the Tokyo Government Metropolitan building for a free view of the city skyline at night. Serious day, Tokyo is an absolutely amazing city.

Reaching our last day, and still feeling like we missed out on so much, we decided to get one last visit in to something touristy, our local temple, and the oldest in Tokyo, Senso-Ji:

Before heading back to the hostel and making sure we'd everything ready for the rest of our Japan journey. We did, however, have time for one last important thing - we'd planned to meet Victor, who Stu had met in Xi'an, and his two friends (Bob & Bob), so decided on the aforementioned burger place, which actually turned out to be a little disappointing. Seems like sticking to Japanese food is the way to go. Beers were good though, as the sole blurry picture of the evening will testify.

And that just about sums up our time in Tokyo. There's so much more to do here, but we were happy to have spent any time at all - we both agree it's one of our favourite cities in the world, and would love to come back sometime soon....just with more money, it's not made for a backpacking budget. Looking forward to our next stop, and thankfully it's only a couple of hours away by bus.

Big love,

Dani & Stu.

Currently listening to: