Takaosan in Tokyo

Recently came back from a short trip to Tokyo. While I was chit-chatting with my colleagues, I realised that some may have a misconception that since Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the scenery is mostly in urban settings. However, they may have forgotten that Japan is many many times bigger than Singapore. :)

Mount Takao in Tokyo, also known as Takaosan, is quite accessible through the subway (from Shinjuku station). Upon arriving, you'll see a big sign board telling you how big the mountain is. :)

Sign board showing the routes up Takaosan

There are 2 ways up the mountain. One is the old fashion way of walking all the way up and the other, is to use the electric train that goes halfway up the mountain and runs every 15mins. No prizes for guessing which option I took. :)

Below are some photos of the train station where you can take the train up. The train fare is quite obvious from the photos so I leave it to you to read it. :)

Train station to go up the mountain

Area surrounding the train station

Interior of the train station and the train fares sign board.

Upon disembarking from the halfway point, the picture below will be the scenery that greets you. It's quick remarkable that you can find such natural scenery in Tokyo city. I like the way the clouds partially cover some areas. It makes the place mysterious. :)

Scenery from the train station up the mountain

Do you think that's the end? Of course not. You'll still have to climb a bit to reach the summit. Unfortunately, it was raining by the time we arrived and it was a bit difficult to carry an umbrella and take photos at the same time. Oh well...

It was quite refreshing though to walk up the mountain in the rain. :) Below are some random pictures that I took while walking up the mountain.

Some very old tree. 450 years old I think

This was beside the tree. Not sure what it is but it looks interesting. :)

A walkway that was lined with these boards. Couldn't really understand what was written on it.

Something similar to the 10 commandments. How nice if everyone follows it.

Interesting statues

I love taking pictures of autumn leaves. :)

Last part of the walk to the summit.

I specially like the above picture. It makes you feel that you're walking steadily towards an unknown and that at the end of the bright tunnel, something beautiful awaits you.

I was not disappointed. The interesting part was that while we were up at the summit, the scene that initially greeted us was all white. However after some time, the sky began to clear and I understood why there were so many people at the summit and I do include old folks. We almost missed it if not for the fact that I was preoccupied taking pictures of a pigeon up a tree that was looking curiously at me. :)

The scenery up there is amazing. You could see rows and rows of mountains and one of which is supposedly Mount Fuji. Unfortunately, I did not manage to catch any glimpse though because the sky was still partially cloudy. :(

Below are some of the photos that I took up the summit. If given a chance again, I believe my wife and I may just stay there and make sure that we could see everything. :) For people who likes nature, I highly recommend going up to the summit, provided you are capable of walking up the mountain. The trail can be quite muddy. :)

A tree with pretty autumn leaves

Autumn leaves again. :)

Small sign saying that you have reached the summit.
Note that big white patch you see behind the board

What you see when the sky partially cleared (no more white patch).
Beautiful scenery

Another section of the summit

Trees with autumn leaves surrounding the summit area

Random Pictures around Tokyo

Updated 21 Nov 2009: Added the traditional Japanese wedding photo

Cute photo of an owner walking the cat

Cute photo of a cat wondering why is everyone looking at it

Nice scenery along the way to the subway

Design Fiesta Gallery at Harajuku

Cute display outside a clothings store at Harajuku

Autumn Leaf

Pigeon high up on Takaosan

Traditional Japanese Wedding at Meiji Shrine at Harajuku

Kawaguchiko Scenery

Recently came back from a short trip to Tokyo. Went up to Kawaguchiko initially with the intention to go up to the 5th station of Mt Fuji. However, it was raining that day and the temperature was already around 5 degrees celsius at Kawaguchiko. As such, the plan was abandoned and instead, we took the Retro bus around Kawaguchiko from the Kawaguchiko Station.

There are 2 kinds of fares for the Retro bus. One is the 1000 yen 2 day ticket that allows you to stop and board the bus anytime you want (unlimited travel). The other if I recall correctly is an one-time 500 yen ticket.

Below are pictures of the Kawaguchiko station and the Retro bus.

Kawaguchiko Station

Retro Bus at Kawaguchiko Station

It seems like when its raining, you can't really do much around Kawaguchiko which was really a pity. We ended up buying snacks around the area and taking pictures of the scenery. The autumn leaves are quite beautiful, especially so when it was still drizzling slightly when the photos were taken. Enjoy the photos.

Interesting trains at Kawaguchiko Station

Thomas the tank engine at Kawaguchiko Station

Trees lining up a driveway up a resort

Pretty autumn leaves I

Pretty autumn leaves II

Pretty autumn leaves surrounding the resort

Trees lining up a driveway going into the resort

A section of Kawaguchiko

Odaiba Night Scene

Recently came back from a short trip to Tokyo. Previously, the tour that I was in brought me to Odaiba in the day time. This time however, I managed to have a chance to visit Odaiba at night. I bet you cannot go there at night if you're in a tour. :)

All I can say is that the night scene at Odaiba is more for photobuffs. It was pretty cold as it is approaching winter but the night scene there is quite beautiful. Despite the cold, there are many people snapping away on their cameras. I've also spotted a few photobuffs with tripods taking pictures of the scenery. Unfortunately, I did not have a tripod or a zoom lens with me so I have to make-do with whatever I can find there.

Below are some of the more decent shots that I have. Judging that I have no tripod, I thought I did pretty well. :p

Colorful Odaiba Ferris Wheel (Blue)

Colorful Odaiba Ferris Wheel (Green)

Odaiba Replica of the Statue of Liberty (zoomed-out)

Odaiba Replica of the Statue of Liberty (zoomed-in)

Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower and Statue of Liberty

Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower (zoomed-out)

Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower (zoomed-in)

Tokyo Food!!

Recently came back from a short trip to Tokyo. As this is a DIY trip, I got a better feel of the cost of food than my previous trip to Hokkaido. You can refer to my previous post here.

Breakfast in general cost about 100 to 200 yen, excluding drinks. Got all of my breakfast from convenience stores situated around the hotel I was staying at. In general if you're an average eater, you can get your lunch and dinner for about 500 to 600 yen. However if you're looking at set meals, the averages I've given in my previous post are quite accurate. For this trip, my lunches and dinners average around 700 to 850 yen, with one exception of 1,460 yen. :)

I've taken a few photos of some of my meals. Feeling hungry? :)

One of my lunch set that I got from shops around my hotel

One of my lunch set that I got from Kawaguchiko station.
The rice is shaped like Mt Fuji. :)

One of my dinner set that I got from Shinjuku.

My ramen lunch at Takaosan. Unique part is I have to pound my own sesame. :)

My 1,460 yen dinner. Omu rice set that comes with a salad that has already disappeared into my stomach and the green juice (melon I think)

One of my lunch set at Ikebukuro. Do you see the egg in the middle of the bowl? :)

Shopping at Tokyo

Updated 19 Nov 2009: Shifted the Kyoho Wine Cake to Kawaguchiko and added the chocolate crunch picture
Updated 21 Nov 2009: Updated the Mt Fuji mooncake like thing picture

Just came back from a short trip to Tokyo. I would say its a fruitful and very tiring trip. :) Shopping of course features quite prominently in my itinerary. I was there only for a few days so it is not possible for me to cover everything. However at least for guys, it seems that the impression that I had of Tokyo is the same I had about Hokkaido. Food and more food. You can refer to my other post about eating in Tokyo here. :)

For my first stop at Kawaguchiko station, I bought some rice crackers, chocolate crunch with the Mt Fuji "brand", some mooncake like thing with the Mt Fuji "brand" and wine cake. :) I tried a packet of the sweet rice crackers and they are quite addictive. It was finished in less than 10mins. :p Have not tried the rest yet though. Below are some pictures of what I bought.

Salty rice crackers on the left and sweet ones on the right

Mt Fuji Chocolate crunch packaging

Mt Fuji Chocolate crunch unwrapped

Packaging for the Mt Fuji mini muffin like thing

The Mt Fuji mini muffin like thing unwrapped

Mt Fuji Mini muffin with fillings in the middle

Kyoho Wine Cake packaging

Kyoho Wine Cake unwrapped

The next shopping area that I went was in Harajuku, known as the Takeshita street. Below is a picture of that street.

Harajuku Takeshita Street

For those going there, note that the shopping area does extend all the way across the cross junction to the other side and to the right-hand side. There are some interesting shops at the other end, especially for guys. The most prominent building in Takeshita street is Daiso, the 100 yen shop (excluding tax). There are 3 floors of stuff but don't spend too much time there. There are more interesting stuff around that area. Below is a picture of Daiso, in case you missed it. :) Note that there are different 100 yen shops around and they sometimes sell different stuffs. I bought quite a few interesting things from the different 100 yen shops I've been to.

Harajuku Daiso

I've also been to the Asakusa Kannon Buddhist Temple that surprisingly offers quite a bit of shopping choices. I believe the shopping area is known as "The Nakamise shopping street". They sell a mixture of stuff such as souvenirs, traditional Japanese food and even Kimonos. However, do note that most stalls only open at around 9.30am to 10am. Take your time to shop around. You'll find that you may be able to get stuff cheaper from another stall. :) Below is a picture of the stalls leading to the temple.

The Nakamise shopping street at Asakusa Kannon Temple

I've also been to various shopping areas like Tokyu Hands at Shinjuku, Shimokitazawa (another place for ladies), Sunshine city at Ikebukuro and of course Akihabara. You can refer to my previous post here about Akihabara. I managed to get some cheap stuff in the shops at the back. :) I have also managed to get some pastry recommended by a friend in Ikebukuro, Seibu. It's called Baumkuchen, a kind of layered cake. I got the small pack that is layered with sugar. All I can say is that I think I can finish one box by myself. :) Below are some pictures of the Baumkuchen.

BaumKuchen packaging

Baumkuchen unwrapped

There is also another place where you can do last minute shopping. That is the Narita airport. Previously I was on tour so we did not really have a chance to look around the place. This time though, we spent close to 2 hours within Narita airport (checked-in). There are many shops within the airport and even a mini Akihabara. Not everything there is expensive. The prices for the "food gifts" sold within the airport is actually comparable to the prices you can get outside (most are around 1000yen). You can even get the White Lover Chocolate in the airport. Below are some of my "food treasures". :)

Tokyo Bananas packaging

Tokyo Bananas unwrapped (yum yum)

Uncooked Soba (8 packs)

Even though I'm on a more flexible schedule this time around, it's still a bit of a rush because the trip is rather short and we were trying to squeeze in as many things as possible. Yes... Sometimes 2-3 hours is not enough as the shopping area is really big. Japan is really a shopping haven for ladies. :p

One thing to note though about shopping. Take note of the season in Japan. As it is now approaching winter, most of the stuff on sale are winter clothings, not exactly the kind of clothings you'll wear in Singapore. :)