One week travel with the JR Pass

I finally saw more than just Tokyo!! I'm sooo proud of me that I organized all on my own.

I decided to visit Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima. I heard sooo many good things about this 3 places.

I planned everywhere a stay of 2 nights.
I booked my hotels on www.swoodoo.com. This website is really popular in my country. One night was around 55€.

Kinkakuji

Kyoto

Day 1

On Wednesday morning I went on the Shinkansen in Shinagawa, Tokyo. I reserved my seat and exchanged my JR Pass already the day before. --> see my other post "transportation in Tokyo / Japan"

After only 3 hours I arrived in Kyoto. I was there around lunchtime. After eating at a restaurant at the station, I walked through the streets in Kyoto. They are quite different from Tokyo. Less people are on the streets and the buildings are quite old.

It was quite a rainy day, so I decided to visit the Imperial Palace. Actually it was almost deserted there...

It's not possible to go inside the palace. But there was a huge, really huge park. I walked around for hours. It says that it's a wonderful park during the cherry blossom time.
With the subway I went back to Kyoto station. Buying a ticket is similar to Tokyo.

Day 2

Today I went visiting the world famous Kinkakuji (golden Temple), the Ryoanji Tempel and the Bambus forest in the Arashiyama area in west Kyoto. In the evening, I went to the Shijo area in the Higashiyama area in center east Kyoto.

The Kinkakuji was really impressive and beautiful. A lot of tourists and students are there. The entrance is for adults 400 円. As souveniers I purchased some lucky charms for my family.

Bambus Forest

The Ryoanji Tempel was near Kinkakuji. I really like the garden of the Tempel.
Everything was green and the trees were impressive.

The Bambus forest is small, but soooooo pretty. It's gives that feeling of: that moment of life!!! Really beautiful.

The Shijo area is maybe what you call the city center. It's were all the people, restaurants and shops are. There are also those areas were the Geishas are. Unfortunately I didn't see them.

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Day 3

On my last day in Kyoto, I went with the JR Nara line to Inari where the Fushimi Inari Shrine is. It's in the South Est of Kyoto. There is a shrine and a path with all those red gates that form kind of a tunnel, that leads up a mountain.

Fushimi Inari path

It was sooo hot that day!! I was almost dying. But it's really fun walking that path. I was also attacked by moskitos... In the afternoon, I walked down the streets of Gyon area. That's the place where everything is really traditional. There are also a lot of Sweets and Matcha stores. I saw few women that were wearing traditional Kimonos.

Around 5:30 I went on the way to Osaka. Instead of the Shinkansen I took the JR train. It took about 40 minutes until Shin Osaka. That's where my Hotel is.

My room in Kyoto

Hotel

I stayed at the APA Hotels & Resorts, 5 minutes from the Kyoto station away. It's a 3 star Hotel.

2 nights were 14000円 without breakfast.

I was really satisfied with it. My room was not that big, but for Japan it's quite big. Everything was really clean. It was really modern, a lot was automatic. I had my own bathroom with bathing tube. My room had a TV, Air conditioner and a fridge. Unfortunately there wasn't a safe, but I had free WLan and Lan connection in my room. It was a bit noisy in my room because it was located toward the main street and there were also the trains passing by. Around midnight it got quieter. Instead of curtains I had a door that covered up the whole window, so it was totally dark at night.

The service was good too. Thez cleaned my room everyday. 

I would definitely go there again. I really recommend it.

Transportation

Kyoto uses city buses. For taking them you need to pay extra. There are one day cards available. They cost 500円. I'm not a big fan of them since it takes a while to reach a destination, because of the traffic. There are two subway lines, also not included in the JR company. The JR lines only reaches farer away destinations.

Osaka

Osaka castle

Day 3

I arrived on Friday evening in Shin Osaka where my Hotel is.

I have no idea why I booked it in Shin Osaka, probably because the Shinkansen station is there.

Shin Osaka is already really lively. A lot of people on the streets, traffic, a lot of noise. I was surprised at how dirty the streets were.

Day 4

At the Osaka station at the tourist information corner, I received a map of Osaka, with the JR lines on it. The lady at the corner also explained me which train I should take for where I wanted to go.

Osaka is huge it has a lot of shops, restaurant and bling bling. It's really cool. The area is called Namba. As for culture I visited the Osaka castle. It's really impressive. I felt like in a chinese movie!!

Somehow I feel that something about Osaka is totally different from Tokyo. The people are dressed more c

Osaka by night

asually. They have a really special dialect and it sounds somehow really friendly.

I have to say that Osaka isn't as clean as the other places that I have seen in Japan. I even saw a girl throwing her trash out of the car!! There are many people that ride a bicicle. Maybe every 3 one.  I saw a lot of teenager practicing dancing on the street.

Hotel

As I arrived in Shin Osaka I lost myself. I went on the opposite direction. I didn't have a map of Osaka nor Shin Osaka. I only had those print screens from Google map. At the station in Shin Osaka there was a map and I mistook the main road with the train lines. 

As I realized I was wrong I went back to the station and restarted again. Actually the Hotel was indicated on the map.

It is about 5 minutes from the station away.

From the station I could see a building with the Hotel name on it. It was an old building so I was like: shiit!!! Fortunately it wasn't that building. It was a building behind the crappy one and that one look pretty ok. I was staying at the Chisun Hotel, it was a 3 star hotel. My room is probably a bit smaller and not as modern as the one in Kyoto. But the furniture and offerings are quite the same. I didn't had WLan, but Lan in my room. For WLan I had to go on a different floor where there was some kind of community room. From my room I could see the main road. It was pretty noisy in my room not just because of the street, but there were also people on the floor that were making a lot of noise until late at night. I also saw a plane passing close by. Instead of curtains I also had a door. It's not as clean as in Kyoto. I found some hairs in the toilet!!

Transportation

The JR trains go all over Osaka. But i think the subways are more used in Osaka, since the trains stations were better situated than the JR stations and there weren't as much people on the trains as they are in Tokyo. But since I didn't have to pay anything, I still took the JR trains. I just had to walk sometimes a bit until the station.

Hiroshima

Atomic bomb dome

Day 5

I arrived arround 11:00 a.m. i Hiroshima. It started to rain... First I went to eat something in hope the rain would stop. It didn't. It only stopped around afternoon.

At the station right at the Shinkansen exit, there is an information desk. I asked for a city map and a JR train map.

Hiroshima castle

I went directly to the atomic dome and the peace parc. I still was carrying my luggage with me. Since check-in was only at 2:00 p.m. I still decided to go to my hotel that was near the parc. Luckily I could hand over my luggage. I went again back to the parc and since it was raining really badly, I decided to go to the museum. The entrance only costed 50円.

Afterwards I checked in my hotel, which is right in front of the Hiroshima castle. I decided to visit the castle. It doesn't looks as nice as the Osaka castle, but it's still really nice.

In the evening I walked through the streets. They aren't as sparkling as in Õsaka and there aren't a lot of people on the streets eighter. It's a really calm city.

don't you think this looks somehow magical?!?

Day 6

I passed my second day in Miyajima. An island near Hiroshima. I saw the sea!! Is it only me or does the sea and the smell of sea water gives a calming effect?!? 

I saw the world famous O-torii Gate. The gate swimming in the sea.

Before lunchtime the gate was standing on the ground. I could go near it. In the evening it was totally covered with water.

When I came to the island, a lot of deer surprised me. They were all over the place!! They came near me and I even could touch

view from Miyajima

them. Sooooo cuute.  :)

With the rail wheel I went up to the highest spot of the island. I had such an amazing view over the sea. 

I walked down the mountain. It took me about 1 hour. It was sooooo hoot!!

The islands nature is really beautiful a lot of green spots and water.

I also got to eat the Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki when I came back to Hiroshima!! OMG!!! It's with fish and pasta... Sooooooo delicious!!!!

Deer, O-torii & sea

O-torii Gate

day 7
At my last day in Hirshima I slept until 9:30 a.m. When I woke up I packed everything and checked out at 11 a.m. I decided to go first to the station to deposit my luggage in a locker, since I didn't want to carry it with me the whole day. It was a really beautiful and hot day, so I decided to go at the river and chill a bit there. I stayed there until about 3 p.m. I walked for a bit around the city and around 16:00 I started to walk towards the station since my train was leaving at 5 p.m.

Hotel

Room in Hiroshima

OMG guys!!! I seriously thought I booked something wrong. The hotel looked sooo expensive and glamourous compared to the others. My room was huuge!! I was staying in the Rihga Royal Hotel, a 4 star hotel. The personal was really friendly. The best thing about my room was definitely the view from my room!! I could see the Hiroshima castle!! sooooo beautiful!! It was situated right in the center of the city. Everything was really close to it. I think the hotel is one of the tallest building in Hiroshima.

Everything was really clean and it was really quiet in my room. The curtains were really light reflecting. I had WLan and Lan in my room.

Transportation

To move around in the city, there were trams running, that weren't from the JR company. The tram fee costs 150円 each time. The JR line passes over Hiroshima.

For going to Miyajima I took first the tram until Hiroden-Nishi-Hiroshima. Then changed to the JR train. The ferry to go to Miyajima was free. It was a JR ferry boat.

view from my hotel room

This week was sooo amazing!! Japan is soooo beautiful and it's really easy to travel around. The people are really friendly and helpfull. It was really interesting to see how different they were from each other.
It was definitely worth buying the JR pass before coming to Japan! I would definitely recommend it to everyone that wants to travel around Japan.

 

Moment4Life

I'm thankful that I was able to see those beautiful places =)

10 random things about Tokyo

What's with all those bottom?!?

1. Toilets with seat warmer

I heard before that the toilets in Japan are totally out of our league. I even thought I would need a guide for it. Actually all those buttons on the side are features. They still work like our toilets do. The thing that totally made me speechless were the seat warmer. I mean like seriously that's somehow really cool, but still kind of wierd.... That's sooo Japan. =)

2. Puricura

Ever heard of that??
They are really popular here in Japan. Basically they are pass pictures you take with your friends. The cool part about it is that you can add many features, like stickers, texts, emotions and much more. It's a lot of fun. Somehow you always look good on these pictures. It's really worth trying them out, because it's a really good memento from Japan.

3. Sweet Crepes

I don't know if other countries have them too. In my country we only have Crepe with Nutella. But they can not be compared to the Crepes from Japan. They basically are Crepes that come in different flavors. I only knew them through animes. They really are delicious. I really looove them. There are a lof of Crepe stands in Harajuku.

Entrance to the Meiji Shrine

4. Visiting Harajuku

Sooo many people in Harajuku

Harajuku is one of my favorite places in Tokyo. It's awesome for shopping. There are sooo many different stores. There are also the basic stores like H&M, F21 and Topshop. Also a lot of other stores.
Harajuku is known for it's fashion. There are a lot of people that are really styled. It's a lot of fun watching them. I think this quarter is really fun. On the other side of the station, there is also the Meiji shrine, the biggest Shintō-Shrine in Tokyo. Next to it, is the Yoyogi park. It's a really cool park to hang around or for Hanami.

5. Crossing in Shibuya

Seriously this crossing is really impressive. It's sooo much fun to see all those people cross the streets at the same time. Wooooow!!! There are sooo many. It's always like this. It's not like once a day. It's the entire day long. Really impressive.

Oppa Gangnam Style!!! =)

6. Shin-Okubo Tokyo's Korean town

K-POP stairs in Shin Okubo

Yess!!!! I'm a K-POP fan and find paradise there. My school is situated there and I didn't know that it was the korean town in Tokyo. Imagine how my eyes were shining as I arrived there for the first time. ;) There are many korean restaurants and fan stores there. It's a really cool street, definitely worth visiting it.
And while you are already there you have to try Hottok. They are really yummie.












7. Karaoke

I'm not a good singer. I never sing in public. Only at home, in my car, under the shower but I'm always alone.
I still wanted to go to Karaoke, because it's sooo Japan. I wanted to know what they love soo much about it. Seriously it's soooo much fun. Actually it's not that easy to sing karaoke. I needed e few songs until I got the hang of it.


8. Izakaya

No plans at the weekend? No problem just go to a Izakaya. There are a lot of Izakayas all over Tokyo. There you can drink and eat for good prices. It's really lively in there. Pretty much fun. I like to drink cocktails and eat Yakitori there.

9. Hanami / Parks

It's really popular in Tokyo to go to the park. There are a few big parks in Tokyo, like the Ueno park or the Yoyogi park. They both are really pretty and big. I prefer the Yoyogi park thought. It's better located.
There are always a lot of people in the park. Most of them are in groups. They play, eat, sleep or do whatever they like. It's really nice. Especially because it doesn't feel like you are not in Tokyo anymore.

10. Just try to walk around

It's crazy but most of the time your traveling around with the train or subway. You don't really get to see a lot of Tokyo like that. This is why I sometimes just leave a station and walk around for a bit. It's really impressive what places there are in Tokyo. It's really worth walking around sometimes.

The sun sets in paradise...

Finally found the sea in Yokohama

Tokyo Sky Tree view by night

Still made it in time to see the beautiful Sakura

Back to school - KPOP Street - first week in Tokyo

On Monday I had my first day at school. It's called KAI Japanese Language School. It's situated in Okubo-dori, train station Shin-Okubo, in a korean quarter which is awesome. There are a lot of KPOP-fanstores, beauty and other stores and also many restaurants. There they have brands like Thefaceshop, Etude House and many others.

At the moment we are four students in my class. I'm going to a conversation class. The Sensei are all really nice. I could start in level 2 which is perfect. There are a lot of new things that I'm learning.
My home is about 40 minutes away from the school. It's ok because there are good train connections. I have school in the afternoon from 13:00 until 16:00. At first I thought it was a stupid time in the middle of the day, but now that I have been doing it for some time I got used to it. I still have enough time before and after school.
The school offers some cultural activities like: tea ceremony, jap. calligraphy, Origami,... I thought they were already included in the school fees but I was wrong. You have to pay for each course 1000 円.

Day 1

After school we went to Akihabara the Electro town in Tokyo.
It's really impressive. There are Maidgirls everywhere and it's really beautiful at night with the lightnings.
It surely is worth visiting it once.

Day 2

Yesterday it was raining the entire day, so I didn't want to go too far away. I went to Harajuku near Shibuya. A classmate told me it would be great for shopping and not too expensive.
The shopping street (Takeshita dori) is right in front of Harajuku station. There are a lot of cute clothing stores and I found a beauty store that has a huge collection.
I also found a Missha store there. There are also a lot of crepes stands and if you haven't tried the crepes yet, I would definitely recommend them to you. They are soooo delicious. I'm obsessed with them. You can choose different toppings, like fruit, chocolate, cake, ecc. The cream that comes as a base is so good!

Day 3

Today after school I went to Shinjuku. The station there is huge and around the station there are many shopping malls. There are a lot of cute clothing stores for girls, but sometimes they are very expensive. There was a sweet stores called Le petit mercerie they sold delicious cakes. On the streets in front of the station I found Forever21, Topshop and Zara. There are way more stores but I didn't get the chance to check them out.

JR trains

I'm slowly getting a hold of the trains. Today I didn't purchased the wrong ticket nor did I went in the wrong train. I still have to purchase the Pasmo Pass but I can't find the place to buy it. They told me that it should be available in a Konbini.

Update: You can buy the Pasmo or Suica at the ticket machine in every station. It's the black box. In the end I went for Suica because it's valid all over Japan while the Pasmo is only for Tokyo. I bought a monthly subscription from home to school.

Click here for more informations about Transportation in Japan.

Jr Skyliner

Remember that I told you I went with the Skyliner from the airport to Tokyo. They told me that there are busses who drive to Tokyo for way cheaper prices.

Update: I never once took the bus to go to Narita. I always took the Skyliner because I was never in time to go to the airport. Remember to check the times and if you buy the ticket at the same day be there early. I lost the train because I had to wait in line to buy the ticket and the next train was 40mins later!! I was running like a crazy person throughout entire Narita because I only had 30mins left!! xD

First day.. First impression... Tokyo

This morning around 10 a.m. I landed in Narita. I feared that I would suffer a total jet-lag but until now it's totally ok. I feared I couldn't sleep in the plane, but I slept most of the time. I went from Zurich to Amsterdam. There I had to switch plane and went with a bigger one to Narita. While waiting in Amsterdam I already made my first contact with a japanese. He was sitting next to me and just started to talk with me. It was really nice.

The flight with KLM was great. Except that my skin broke out really bad... Right now I have a huuuge pimple on my cheek, even thought I didn't wore makeup, only concealer and powder. I even took it off before I slept and I even moisturized my skin regularly...

The cabin crew member were really friendly and there were a few who could speak in japanese. the passengers were almost all japanese.
There was a japanese cabin crew member that looked exactly like Dara from 2ne1, soooo pretty.
...and there was also a good looking guy that looked like Siwon from SuJu.

At the airport in Narita was everyone really nice and helpful. They all speak english so there shouldn't be any problem.
I decided to go on my own to my sleeping place which is called Hippo House. The school was so nice to give me a description with the details of where do I have to pass..
At Narita there were different possibilities. I went with the JR Skyliner to Nippori. From there I had to take the JR trains and that's when it became complicated.
I had to change 3 time the train but I didn't know, if I had to pay again for my ticket, since the first time I only paid for Ikebukuro but I had to go until Kitatoda. I tried to ask and officer that worked at the station, but he couldn't speak english and my japanese was too bad to explain. I just tried and went on the next train. Accidentally I went on the wrong one and only realized that after 5 stations. I immediately left the train and tried to ask another officer. He also couldn't speak that well english but I managed to ask in broken japanese which train I have to take to get to Kitatoda.
In the end I had to pay more for my ticket. The officer at the station in Kitatoda just calculated the difference and I could pay it to him.
In Kitatoda I still had to walk 5 minites until the house, but I couldn't understand how the address systeme here in Japan, so I asked someone and she even took me to the place. I'm really fascinated by the peoples kindness. It's thanks to those people that I found the place.

Just random thought.....

I feel like I'm in a manga!!
No joke as I arrived at my sleeping place, which is in Saitama in north Tokyo near Kitatoda station, I felt like I was a manga character.
Everything looked exactly like in a Manga. It was so amusing. I'm looking forward to see more.

Before leaving I heard that Sakura was already blooming and was really disappointed that I wouldn't see them, since I planned my trip that way so I could see them.
Still as I went with the Skyliner to Tokyo I saw sooooo many Sakura trees blooming and was sooo happy to see them. They are sooo beautiful and there are so many of them.
Right in front of my home there is a street with Sakura tree and I fell in love with them.

Let's talk about something fun:
Those vending machines are in every corner of Tokyo. I see them everywhere. They even have ice cream machines and I always wanted one for my office in summer.

Actually I couldn't take a lot of picture today because I first wanted to go to my sleeping place. There they were already worried about me, because I came so late. I thought that was really cute.
There are a lot of japanese staying there. That's great so I can practice my japanese.Until now I only saw another girl from Switzerland. There should be about 50 people living here, but it's really quiet.

My room is really pretty. I love the color of the blanket. It's so girly.
The bathroom is clean and we have Wi-Fi in the community room which I'm going to check out later.

After I organized myself in my new home I went to a grocery store to buy some food for dinner.
Actually they were so many unknown products and the descriptions were all in japanese, that I didn't buy something decent. I was too tired to try to read them.
In the end I decided to buy chicken that was already had prepared.

I'm sooo excited about the comig days. There are going to be so many new things. I'm soooo excited.
Tomorrow I have school. I have class in the afternoon from 13:30 until 16:30.

Lets fly away from all the trouble...

In just a few days I be leaving home. I'm going for 3 months alone to Japan for studying japanese and travel around the country.

I never left home alone and never went so far away.
I'm really excited about it. I'm not scared or worried about anything, I'm sure this gives me so many new experiences.
A lot of people said it would be crazy to go alone there. My mum was against it too.

How everything started
Since my apprenticeship I wanted to go abroad. I didn't have enough money back then so I couldn't go. Instead I went to work and kept saving for it.
I wasn't sure where to go. I thought a lot about the US or Canada sounded also really interesting.
In the end I decided to go to Japan.

How I started to learn japanese
After I finished my apprenticeship, I had a lot more free time because I didn't have to learn anymore. I started to take spanish lessons but it was way to easy because of the similarities with italian.
I wanted to learn a language that has different characters to our ABC.
I thought a lot about Chinese but I really liked the japanese pronunciation.
In the end I chose japanese and I started studying it 1 1/2 years ago.

How I started to love Asia
With the time I got to know a lot about Japan in generally. Even thought I'm half asian I never was really interested for Asia.
But everything has changed now.
I was introduced to JPOP and KPOP. To be honest even thought I'm studying japanese I prefer listening to KPOP.
Through KPOP I was introduced to KDramas. I'm really addicted to it now.
I really got interested in korean too and started to learn on my own the korean alphabet, which is really easy to learn. It says that everyone is able to learn it in 30 minutes.

How I planned everything
Last year I started to think that in 2013 I want to go abroad.
I still didn't thought about it properly and didn't make plans until autumn 2012.
When I returned in September to work after my holiday. I was informed that my company would move to another town, which was farer away from my home and more in the countryside
I was speechless back then. I'm not a fan of the countryside at all and wasn't ready to drive to such a place everyday.
I intended to ask if I could take vacation for 3 months in spring 2013, I thought about March to July.
They couldn't give me an answer immediately. They needed time for reflection.
I thought about quitting my job but my mum was against it.
As I told her that I wanted to go to Japan for 3 months she was really unhappy.
I wouldn't have quit my job without her permission, because I would only have a bad conscience.
I was thinking about so many options if I wouldn't receive the permission from my company. I was even willing to just go for a months.

I didn't received an answer until December, so I decided to go ask again.
Again they told me that they couldn't give me an answer.
During the time from September to December I started to get really depressed, especially after we moved to the new location. In the first week I was really unhappy.
I was always complaining to my parents. My mum told me to search for a new job, but I knew that if I would change job, I couldn't go to Japan.

Somehow my mum's opinion about Japan started to chance.
As I told her again that I wanted to quit my job she was really neutral and said I should do what I think is right.
That was enough for me and I quit my job.

The week before Christmas I informed myself about price and schools for my trip.
From a company I received an offer and so it went on and right after Christmas I booked everything.
I felt so relaxed after that. My flight was booked for 30th March.

In those 3 months left I still went to work but I was more relaxed.
I was thinking about what I needed to do before my departure.
I informed myself about paying options, transport option (rail-pass), activities to do in Japan, vaccinations, ...)
My mum also informed herself about Japan. I can tell that she's really worried, especially now that it's almost time.
She's always like: what if something happens?
Then I would say: Why? The possibilities that I get in a car accident is higher...
Well maybe she will be more relaxed after I'm gone and everything is fine.