Tokyo, Nikko,...typhoon?

My JR Pass was active this time I was in Tokyo, so I took advantage of it as much as possible, and only rode the subway a few times this time in Tokyo, instead taking the equally massive JR train system running through Tokyo. So after settling back in at K’s House Tokyo (and the staff all remembered me from 5 weeks ago!), I headed to Shibuya to grab some dinner (as it was dark already), with a brief stop at the Tokyo station first. I’d never been in the Tokyo station before...it was massive and constantly very busy. There were so many people rushing to get to places to the many different platforms and exits, long line-ups at the snack boutique shops that are a feature of the major train stations, crowds at the multiple ticket counters at all the multiple locations in the station – I knew I was back in the bustling city of Tokyo. I wandered the streets of Shibuya for a bit before deciding on a Japanese fast food place to have dinner. It was so strange – there was music from the Pokemon game playing throughout the streets in the section of Shibuya diagonally across the Shibuya crossing from the train station. It took me a while to figure it out, but they played not only the music you hear while walking around in the game, they even had sounds from a battle and of your Pokemon levelling up (it’s so sad I still remember the sounds hahaha)!

Back in Tokyo. At the time, I thought it would be my last ride on the shinkansen (you can see my big bag in the top right corner). I almost didn't want to leave the train hahaha.


Tokyo station...like I said, big, very busy, and constantly full of people.


The Shibuya crossing at night. Yes, it was raining hahaha. You can see the transparent clear umbrellas I was talking about before that is very common in Japan. It's like a sea of umbrellas.


I kept seeing the "First Kitchen" chain in a few places around Japan, so I figured I'd give one of their many burgers a try after dinner (since I didn't eat much for dinner anyway).


Wandering around the Shibuya area.


Instead of wasting money on a game, I bought a popsicle from the popsicle vending machine, where you always get something back for your money haha. I'm not sure what the flavour was; I can't figure out what drink is on the label that the popsicle is supposed to taste like...maybe a Blue Hawaii?

The next day, I headed off to Nikko, famous for its collection of shrines and temples that make it almost a mini-Kyoto. It’s often visited as a day trip from Tokyo by tourists who want to see some cultural things in Japan but are not going to Kyoto. So I caught the uniquely designed JR train to Nikko and bought the 1000 yen combination ticket Nikko offers, which allows access to the main shrines and temples of Nikko. They were much more intricately designed, with more colour and artwork. That's not to say the temples of Nikko were better than the ones in Kyoto, they were just different. Some Japanese actually consider the shrines and temples in Nikko to be too flashy (and not in keeping with the usual simplicity the Japanese are known for). Despite trying to take my time, I finished sightseeing within 3 hours, which actually worked out pretty well, because during the last 30 minutes, the rain picked up and was pouring very hard (luckily I brought an umbrella from Tokyo). But I'll let you enjoy the photos and see for yourself.

At Nikko.


The Shinkyo, also known as the Scared Bridge. Back in the day, only the emperor was allowed to cross the bridge; now you have to pay to cross it (I didn't bother, it's not that big of a bridge. According to some sources, it's considered one of the most beautiful structures in Japan for its simplicity, contrasted against the backdrop of the wilderness around it (especially the Daiyagawa which runs under it, that has a nice blue emerald colour).


Approaching the shrines and temples of Nikko.


At Rinno-ji, Nikko's most important temple. The first photo is of Sanbutsudo, the main building of the temple, which is known for it's three giant gold lacquered, wooden Buddha Kannon statues of Amida, Senju-Kannon (meaning Kannon with a thousand arms, but it doesn't actually have 1000 arms) and Bato-Kannon. They ask you not to take photos of them, but I probably should of since I'll probably never visit it again and they were quite beautiful works.


At Toshogu, the largest shrine of the group, where Tokugawa Ieyasu was buried. It took 2 years and 15,000 workers to finish. The large amount of detailed, intricate artwork is quite apparent. The 3rd and 4th photos show the path of (stone) lanterns. The 6th photo is of the stable that houses a white horse statue, but its main attraction is the collection of wood carvings of monkeys, supposedly quite popular among tourists because one carving depicts the famous "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil." I didn't put up a photo of it, and I wasn't allowed to take photos inside, but the shrine also had a small hall called Yakushi-do, famous for its acoustics - there's a giant painting of a dragon on the ceiling, and striking a wooden block (which a monk demonstrates) directly under the mouth of the dragon makes a high-pitched echo (which they describe as the cry of the dragon), but striking the block anywhere else inside the hall does not produce any sound besides the striking of the block. The second last photo is of the Yomei-mon - the gate has over 400 carvings on it.


Through a long, shaded path lined with moss and huge, tall trees, to the next shrine.


Futarasan-jinja. Despite the long climb up the stairs from the main gate, there wasn't much to see at the shrine. The big circle was interesting though - you're supposed to make a figure-8 through and around it (with the circle serving as the midpoint) for a certain number of times for good luck or health or something along those lines (the descriptions were in Japanese, so I'm guessing on what it was supposed to grant upon the participant).


Taiyuin-byo, where Ieyasu's grandson, Iemitsu, was buried (his grandson ordered the building of Toshogu). Lots of steps at this one. This was when the rain really started to pour hard. The last photo is of Iemitsu's mausoleum (there was an extra fee to see Ieyasu's grave at Tosogu, but it really didn't interest me anyway).


On the train ride back from Nikko, I spotted this ad and found it pretty interesting (Nippon is Japanese for Japan). There's a Japanese pun that says something along the lines that when you see Nikko, you'll say enough, because it's so packed with culture. Good marketing, but it's a shame it's on the train that already goes to Nikko?!?


At Utsunomiya. To get to Nikko with the JR trains, you need to take the shinkansen from Tokyo to Utsunomiya, then transfer to the JR Nikko line. So this ended up being my last shinkansen ride! I don't know if Utsunomiya is known for its gyoza, but the train station was packed full of restaurants selling gyoza cooked in different styles and with different fillings. So I figured I should at least try some. I picked up all this for only 500 yen too (which is relatively really cheap)!

The night before, I thought I had seen a Pokemon Center while riding the JR loop around Tokyo, so when I got back from Nikko, I went to find it. Sure enough, Pokemon Center Tokyo really existed, and it was much better stocked than the Fukuoka one. Pokemon in Japan isn't like in North America where it's mainly just for kids; people of all ages and professions enjoy it (there were high school students, university students, and several business men and women in the store when I was there). I found the entire thing quite amusing. Then I headed back to Tokyo station to browse around some of the many underground shops connected to the station. There was an entire alley lined with shops that sold only anime-related toys, collectibles, and other items!

Back at Tokyo, at Kitchen Street, an underground alley lined with restaurants serving all different types of food that branches out from Tokyo station. I was looking for some dinner, but this is not the place to go if you're on a budget, so I obviously did not eat here.


Pokemon Center Tokyo! Wall to wall Pokemon, and they have just about anything branded with Pokemon.


More of the Tokyo station crowd.


Some of the shops selling anime products in the underground alleys connected to Tokyo station. If that's a Snoopy Town Mini, I can't even imagine what the full-sized store is like.


The basement food shops of the shopping malls connected to Tokyo station. I didn't fully believe it when someone told me they had bought a handful of grapes in Japan for 800 yen (about $10 CDN), until I saw for myself at one of the shops selling a handful of grapes for 945 yen, which is around $11.75 CDN!


I saw this bag of chicken-flavoured rings at the convenie on the way back to the hostel, so I decided to try it. It tasted exactly like Humpty Dumpty Rings; it didn't even have any chicken flavour.

The next day, I wanted to go to the relatively nearby Hakone as a day trip, where views of Mt. Fuji can be seen (on a clear day), the giant lake and its surroundings are quite scenic, and the main tourist attraction is riding through the area in a long connected loop on several different means of transport (including train, cable car, boat, and bus). Unfortunately, the typhoon had started to pass Tokyo the night before, and was continuning to pass across Japan this day just outside Tokyo, right through the Hakone area. The Japanese news on TV in the morning showed that the typhoon had caused quite a bit of wind and water damage to parts of Japan that it passed over. So to play it safe (and also due to several malfunctions caused by the typhoon), JR shut down all train service in and around Tokyo, sending all its many customers down to the subway system, leading to massive crowding (though quite orderly chaos in typical Japanese fashion). So I couldn't leave Tokyo, and ended up spending the entire day in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, famous for its large selection of electronics (and anything related), new and used. I was afraid I'd end up having to find ways of killing time, but somehow time just seemed to race by as I leisurely browsed the Yodobashi Camera store at Akihabara, the smaller shops selling second-hand computer and camera gear, and the surprisingly many toy collector shops (which had Japanese anime figures and quite a wide selection of toys from America!). Really bad weather like a typhoon is just a part of travelling, but still, it seemed like a wasted day to me. And the kicker (as if someone was playing a bad joke on me): it was sunny with clear skies when I got out of the subway at Akihabara! But there was one highlight of the day: all the pastry treats (from the French pastry shops) I tried...I only had a couple days left in Japan, so I decided to relax my food budget a bit hahaha.

My breakfast from a French pastry shop. The 2nd photo is of the Sugar Toast I wanted to try, and I really liked it. A large triangle cut of white bread, soft and chewy in the middle, with a hard, crunchy, sweet sugar crust on the outside.


I had lunch in the Yodobashi Camera store at a sushi conveyor belt shop. Since I didn't try o-toro (fatty tuna) when I was at the Tsukiji fish market the first time I was in Tokyo, I decided I had to try it even though they were (obviously) the more expensive dishes. The restaurant was a chain supposedly known for it's bluefin tuna. The first photo is of o-toro from "Special Southern" bluefin tuna, and the 2nd photo is of collar tuna from bluefin tuna. I could definitely taste the fat in both, and while I'm not one to usually eat animal fat, it was actually really good. I can see why the Japanese like it so much, it's very soft, the cut is more tender, and the fat enhances the flavour of the tuna meat.


Sunny skies at Akihabara...what typhoon? I actually got lucky because the typhoon was originally forecast to pass right over Tokyo, but it changed direction and passed by Tokyo instead.


I saw some TV crew filming what looked to be a news report while walking around Akihabara...probably commenting on how sunny and nice the weather was here haha.


The Yodobashi Camera store at Akihabara at night. Like I said before, they're massive...one thing the Japanese really know how to do well is shopping malls.


I stopped by another French pastry shop for a little snack after dinner. The fruit-filled pastry was very good; it was mango with apple cream cheese custard (last photo). The three little balls with fillings were "doughnuts" (at least that's what the English translation said on the name display), but they were thin glutinous rice balls deep fried with a filling inside. Much better and tastier than our doughnuts in North America! I don't remember the flavours of the fillings now, but they were all different, though I think one of them was pumpkin flavour.


Having an Asahi Cool Draft (another one of their lines I had seen in the factory at Fukuoka, so I had to try it; it's like the Super Dry but a little heavier and flavourful) and a bag of Hokkaido onion flavoured rings, while enjoying some Japanese game shows on TV, before heading off to bed.